Help STOP firearms regulation through State Sovereignty!

[armed and humorous]

The problem for a lot of us we just don't have the time to devote to our cause.  Not everyone posts their age here, but I'd guess most of us still work a full time job.  Otherwise we coudln't afford our hobby.  With all the other things that need to get done, household chores like mowing and trimming the hedge, taking care of our vehicle maintenance, family responsibilities like taking care of younger kids or helping your older ones with things they don't know how to do yet, and who knows how many other things, there's just not a lot of time left.  The only reason I'm on here so much since I joined is because of the surgery I had on my wrist that is preventing me from going back to work yet.  I should have timed it so the legislature was in session.  Then I could have spent some time down there twisting some arms in our favor.

That's not an excuse for not doing anything, though.  Most of our writing on this formum does little more than make us feel good.  Yes, we can put our heads together and come up with some strategies for furthering our cause, we can answer one another's questions, and we can keep one another informed of important issues and events.  But, a good percentage of the writing going on here is preaching to the choir and patting one another on the back.  (Not that there is anything wrong with either of those things.)

I'm sure a lot of you already do, but we need to be writing to our representatives, writing to the newspapers on the opinion page, commenting on line to news stories related to guns and gun legislation, encouraging more people to buy guns, go hunting, join our group, show them that it's not all about killing people; it's fun, and it could save lives, too.

[rugermanx]

And that is my point. We need to be more involved or we are in trouble.

[jakub]

signed

[gboyle2]

You people are right on the money in this forum.  Everyone points are well taken.  12 months ago my politics extended to listening to talk radio and waiting to cast a vote for a terrible candidate.  Six months ago I attended my local republican party meeting to see what could be done.  My opinion, the patient was on life support and fading fast.   In March I went to the live showing of Glenn Becks You are Not Alone show.  The next day I put together the Sovereignty Resolution for Nebraska.  April 15th I was asked to speak at the Tea Party and did so.  Since then I have started a non profit, Launched a web site, lined up representatives from Oklahoma, Wyoming, Arizona, Texas and others from around the country to meet, strategize and speak at the Qwest Center.  They all want to combine efforts to take the next step some of you speak of.  I am was just a clock puncher that got fed up, and we can all do it in the America we grew up in and love.  I for one will not let this country fail without a fight and sovereignty is the platform for the battle.

[SBarry]

Thanks for joining our fight, and let us know what we can do, brother. 1650 members and growing fast, we can and will make a difference.

[rugermanx]

Indeed, Let us know what we can do and I'm sure you'll find some support around here.

[gboyle2]

Dan W has posted the information on the National Sovereignty Symposium on the board.  Representatives from Texas, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming and the rest of the country are comming to Omaha in January to discuss strategy and speak with Nebraskans.  It is time the states reasserted their constitutional authority and we are going to get it started right here in Nebraska in January.  For once, fly over country is going to be out front on a movement sweeping the nation.  Go to CCA1789.com for info and to register.  Once we get sovereignty rolling CCA is going to move on the Firearms Freedom Act that passed in Montana and Tennessee.

[GunFun]

What I think needs to be done is to start seriously battling the unconstitutional laws already in effect RIGHT HERE.

The 2nd Amendment has been upheld so far by the Supreme Court for a long time as an INDIVIDUAL right to (keep)own and (bear)carry arms.

The laws in Nebraska (specifically Omaha) denying open carry and requiring licensing and registration for concealed carry are CLEARLY unconstitutional, and the states (i.e. Nebraska) are NOT allowed constitutionally to deny us these rights.

They need to be stricken from the books. Period.

[flatwater_go]

January 09, 2010
Kentucky's Answer to Unconstitutional Federal Actions

"Over the course of the past two hundred and twenty-two years, we have forgotten many of the basic principles that were fresh in Thomas Jefferson's mind when he drafted the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. These resolutions lay out the proper response to the federal government's unconstitutional actions and are quoted in the sections below."

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/kentuckys_answer_to_unconstitu.html

[Dan W]

January 09, 2010
Kentucky's Answer to Unconstitutional Federal Actions
By Daniel Baker

(see link in post above)

There is indeed nothing new under the sun. The answer to the federal government's current expansion far beyond the limits set by the Constitution lies in Thomas Jefferson's response to the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798. The Sedition Act blatantly ran afoul of the First Amendment by forbidding any speech against the government. It stated in part.

And be it further enacted, That if any person shall write, print, utter or publish ... writings against the government of the United States, ... then such person, being thereof convicted ... shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years.

Over the course of the past two hundred and twenty-two years, we have forgotten many of the basic principles that were fresh in Thomas Jefferson's mind when he drafted the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. These resolutions lay out the proper response to the federal government's unconstitutional actions and are quoted in the sections below.

Foremost of the forgotten principles is the fact that the states were fully autonomous before uniting under a contract known as the Constitution. Each state voluntarily gave up a portion of its sovereignty, but never surrendered it completely, in joining the United States. Thus, every state is a party to the Constitution, with the other states as co-parties. Here are some excerpts from Jefferson's Kentucky Resolutions:

   

1. Resolved, That the several States composing, the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution ... they constituted a general government for special purposes - delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government.

The Constitution is the equivalent of a partnership agreement, with the states as partners and the federal government as managers and employees. Take for instance Benny and Gerald, who wish to form a partnership selling ice cream. Each agrees to contribute certain amounts of money and time and set up a framework for the duties of managers and employees to run the business. The managers and employees work for Benny and Gerald, not the other way around. Let's assume that the partnership agreement gives the manager the authority to set prices for ice cream and conduct sales as he sees fit. If he sets prices too low so that Benny and Gerald lose money, they will fire the manager; however, they must accept the loss because they gave the manager the authority to set the prices. However, if he decides to give half of the sales price of the ice cream to his favorite charity, then he has stolen from Benny and Gerald, who in turn have a right to demand the money back from the manager and take it out of his paycheck.

   

8.  Resolved ... that in cases of an abuse of the delegated powers, the members of the general government, being chosen by the people, a change by the people would be the constitutional remedy; but, where powers are assumed which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy; that every State has a natural right in cases not within the compact ... to nullify of their own authority all assumptions of power by others within their limits.

The proper remedy for unconstitutional acts conducted by the federal government is to nullify those acts within the borders of the states finding them unconstitutional. This right belongs to the states based solely on the fact that they are parties to a contract. They owe a duty to abide by the contract only to the other states; they owe no duty to abide by anything outside the contract.

   

8.  Resolved ... that with [the States] alone ... [are] parties to the compact, and solely authorized to judge in the last resort of the powers exercised under it, Congress being not a party, but merely a creature of the compact, and subject as to its assumptions of power to the final judgment of those by whom, and for whose use itself and its powers were all created and modified.

The final word concerning what is and what is not acceptable under a contract goes to the parties of the contract. The Supreme Court is a creation of the Constitution; it is not a party. So then if Congress, for instance, passes the Fairness Doctrine and the president signs it, then the great state of Missouri has the right, regardless of any Supreme Court decisions one way or the other, to declare the Fairness Doctrine unconstitutional and thus null and void within her borders. Missouri would have to answer to her sister states, but not to anyone else.

   

1.  Resolved ... that the government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself; since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as in all other cases of compact among powers having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress.

   

8.  Resolved ... that without this right, [the States] would be under the dominion, absolute and unlimited, of whosoever might exercise this right of judgment for them.

The answer to the vast expansion of the federal government is that the states need to be willing to nullify unconstitutional laws. Federalists shouldn't worry so much about changing the federal government to respect state sovereignty as they should about working within their own states to throw off unconstitutional acts of the federal government. If the states cannot nullify unconstitutional acts, then the federal government is able (and willing) to do whatever it wants, with no real constitutional limits in place. Our country is then only a few steps away from despotism, with the final arbiter of what is "constitutional" as the supreme dictator.

[rugermanx]

Wow, I like that.

[Dan W]

http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2010/01/27/obama-asks-governors-to-commit-sovereignty-suicide/

Obama Asks Governors to Commit Sovereignty Suicide

27. Jan, 2010
 by Lawrence A. Hunter Ph.D.

?Will you step into my parlor?? said the spider to the fly;
??Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you did spy.
The way into my parlor is up a winding stair,
And I have many pretty things to show when you are there.?
?O no, no,? said the little fly, ?to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your winding stair can ne?er come down again.?
?The Spider and the Fly

President Obama issued Executive Order 13528 on January 11, 2010 establishing a Council of Governors ostensibly ?to strengthen further the partnership between the Federal Government and State governments to protect our Nation and its people and property.?

If history has taught us anything, it is to beware of ?cooperative partnerships? between the federal government and states. They invariably result in an expansion of federal authority and reach at the expense of the states and a diminution of individual rights and freedoms in the name of the general welfare and national security. So-called ?cooperative federalism? is a snare and a delusion. Read more here

One direct result of the new Council of Governors will be to provide the federal government more control of state National Guards, allowing the president to synchronize and integrate federal military operations within the United States. The total disregard for the Posse Comitatus Act within this order is one more erosion of restrictions against the use of the military for law enforcement.

More generally, the new Council of Governors establishes a bureaucratic transmission belt for the president to conscript state governors to act as agents of the federal government. Indeed, by establishing this council, appointed by the president and presided over by the Secretary of Defense, President Obama is asking governors to engage in the ultimate act of sovereign suicide in the name of ?intergovernmental cooperation and coordination.? This council represents the ultimate in ?intergovernmentalism,? a perversion of true federalism.

I have written about the corrosive nature of intergovernmentalism or so-called ?cooperative federalism? extensively.

    Intergovernmentalism Replaces Federalism
    ?After World War II, federalism was replaced by ?intergovernmentalism, an unlovely term for the unlovely transformation of the sovereign states into bureaucratic extensions of the central government. . . It is an interesting exercise to analyze why the U.S. Constitution failed in this, its most important function.
    ?It is not necessary to come to any definitive conclusion as to why it [federalism] failed to know that is has, in fact, failed. It is sufficient to observe the states? advanced stage of political decrepitude and legal dilapidation; the relatively low-quality of their elected and appointed officials; their incapacity to defend themselves legally, politically or physically against the national government; their fiscal dependence upon the national government; their reliance upon the national government operationally; their subservience to the national government in every respect; their low regard in the eyes of the public and the lesser affection and attention they receive from the electorate.?

The president?s latest executive order is of a piece with his December 17, 2009 executive directive amending Executive Order 12425 to grant immunity to Interpol agents operating within the United States, paving the way for Interpol to be conscripted by the president as a kind of Swiss Guard.

Taken together, these two executive orders represent another quantum leap in the continued erosion of meaningful constraints on the federal government?s police power, and they constitute a frightening continuation of this president?s expansion of the military-industrial-police state at his command.

Governors should decline the President?s invitation to step into his Council. State officials who enter into these federal labyrinths never come out with their sovereignty in tact.

Editor?s Note: CLICK HERE : http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/legislation/defend-the-guard/  to view model legislation to reassert State control over national guard troops.

Dr. Lawrence A. Hunter is President of the Social Security Institute, a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization, and Senior Fellow at Americans for Prosperity and the Institute for Policy Innovation where he does economic research and writes reports on a diverse range of public policy issues.

[FarmerRick]

http://www.robbishop.house.gov/News/DocumentPrint.aspx?DocumentID=184458

Rob Bishop
Contact: Melissa Subbotin 202-225-0453

House Republicans Launch New 10th Amendment Task Force
Task Force Seeks to Restore the Constitutional Balance of Power Through Federalism

Washington, May 6 -

Today, Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman Tom Price (R-GA), Congressman Rob Bishop (R-UT) and nine other Republican Members of Congress officially launched the newly formed 10th Amendment Task Force, a project of the RSC.  The Task Force will develop and promote proposals that aim to disperse power, decision-making, and money from Washington back to states, local governments, and individuals. 

The Task Force was created in response to the public outcry over the concentration of power and the one-size-fits-all solutions from Washington.  More than ever, Americans are expressing frustration at having important facets of their lives controlled by a government that is out of reach and out of touch.  Among other things, the Task Force will focus on educating Congress and the public about federalism, elevating federalism as a core Republican focus and monitoring threats to 10th Amendment principles.

Rep. Tom Price, Chairman of the Republican Study Committee (GA-06): ?Our Founding Fathers understood the danger of amassing broad powers in the federal government at the expense of individual liberty.  The 10 co-founders and all members of this task force should be commended for taking the initiative to champion the cause of Federalism and its vital role in our Republic.?

Rep. Rob Bishop (UT-01), Founder of the Task Force: ?This is not yesterday?s states? rights argument.  It?s much bigger than that.  This is about better governance and breaking up big, inefficient, unresponsive government-returning power back to the people of this country.?

Rep. John Culberson (TX-07) co-founder:  ?The Task Force was formed to uphold the principle that the will of the people is best served at the state and local levels, and that the federal government should not interfere in matters that are fully within the purview of the states.?

Rep. Randy Neugebauer (TX-19) co-founder:  ?We have strayed too far from the principles of our Founders. This Task Force will be key in monitoring the further erosion of powers that traditionally belong to the states and the voices of the American people, not the federal government.?

Rep. Doug Lamborn (CO-05) co-founder: ?Americans are outraged with the federal government?s ever increasing intrusion into our lives. This intrusion comes in the form of burdensome regulations, taxes, and unfunded mandates. I reject this one-size-fits-all approach coming from Washington because it doesn?t work. I am calling for a return to what the Constitution outlines as a limited role for the federal government and more rights to the states.? 

Rep. Cynthia Lummis (WY-At large) co-founder: ?We in Wyoming value our independent way of life and frontier spirit. We don?t take kindly to Washington bureaucrats telling us how to live our lives. We need to limit the power of federal bureaucrats and give it back to states and individuals. That is what our founders envisioned, our Constitution requires and what our constituents want.?

Rep. Mike Conaway (TX-11) co-founder: ?Supporting the 10th Amendment is not a partisan issue. It is about respecting the boundaries placed on the federal government by the U.S. Constitution. It is my hope that through the Tenth Amendment Task Force, Members on both sides of the aisle will be better educated on our founders? vision for America.?

Rep. Scott Garrett (NJ-05) co-founder: "The principles they secured in the Constitution should be the guide for every action the government undertakes.  Unfortunately, the Federal government has crept into many facets of once locally controlled areas and, in many instances, the Federal judiciary has ignored the intent of federalism. That?s why I am happy to join with my fellow members in ushering in this ?New Era of Federalism? to alter the government?s operation and influence on the daily lives of its citizens."

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (UT-03) co-founder: ?Successful federal government by its very nature should be focused and limited. Washington cannot possibly develop solutions that are the best fit for all 50 states. Each state has its own unique priorities, demographics, economy, strengths and weaknesses. That?s why we need to allow states to have more control over policy making and implementation.?

Rep. Tom McClintock (CA-04) co-founder: ?The ultimate check upon an abusive or dysfunctional government is the ability of people to walk away from it.  By limiting the federal government to those enumerated powers that serve a truly national objective, our constitution disperses the remaining powers among 50 states and a hundred fold more communities.  Those states that are governed unwisely naturally lose population and commerce to those that are governed well.?

[jakub]

Has anyone from the Nebraska deligation signed on to this? It sounds like a good idea.