Perhaps one of the best explanations of the Second and Third Amendment is explained by a short five minute video available on Youtube, “Gun Control for Dummies, It’s Common Sense.”
The Crash Dummy reviews the first ten amendments to the Constitution, The Bill of Rights, and explains its context.
Each amendment was listed in a specific order for a reason. The First Amendment covers four freedoms; the Second, the right to bear arms; and the Third, to safeguard individuals and families from a federal government taking their home, their land, their farm, their belongings, and their lives.
In fact, the Third Amendment is the lynchpin for all of the others.
Can you imagine a government that can come into your home, throw you out, and then completely trash everything that you have worked for all of your life?
“If a tyrannical government was sending men into your home, would you be better off with a firearm or a kitchen knife? They come to take your home, your daughter, and leave you with nothing.”
The whole point of the Bill of Rights was to ensure that citizens have the right to protect themselves, their families, and their property– from a tyrannical government. The Third Amendment also reinforced the need for the Second Amendment.
Without the Third Amendment, the federal government could have troops or officials move into a person’s home, without their permission, destroy their land and livestock, and take members of their family. The Second Amendment enabled them to protect themselves from an armed government forcefully and illegally entering their homes.
Several instances have recently arisen in recent history.
In 2013, the Mitchell family sued the City of Henderson, Nevada, its Police Chief, five police officers, and the City of North Las Vegas and its Police Chief in Federal Court for violating their Third Amendment rights. Henderson police arrested them for refusing to allow officers to enter their home and use it as lookout to investigate their neighbors.
Some argue that the federal government’s demand for “what really is CIA and NSA squatters rights on the servers of private-sector communications companies” violates the Third Amendment. In this way, government intrudes into the private lives of citizens via the Internet and phone lines, including e-mail, phone, or social media, through its “domestic spying program.”
And, scholars at the Political Economy Research Center suggest that the Endangered Species Act– is also a violation of the Third Amendment.
For those who oppose the Second Amendment, they might want to consider how they would defend themselves from a government that would illegally take from them their home, their property, and their family.
January 21, 2016