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Why the Washington State Gun Rights Fight is YOUR Fight-PHS

This is right from the Patrick Henry Society.

It is all of ours to fight for, down to the last gun, the last bullet and to the our entire worth of freedom. It is all of ours to fight for, the Second Amendment and our rights as FREE men and women.

Alan Gottlieb, Adina Hicks SAF, and WAFLAG are NOT our friends. They are the enemy of EVERY responsible gun owner in America. Most gun owners are responsible and stay within the reasonable and common sense laws that we already have.

Understand that laws will be followed until they are changed and start taking our freedoms away. This regime is the most anti-gun administration that we have seen in many, many years. Some may disagree on this last statement and make your case in the comments. There will be other links in the post that follows and I ask that you spend some time and read these articles or opinions. 
PatriotUSA

Hat tip: WRSA.

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Why the Washington State Gun Rights Fight is YOUR Fight

By Anthony Bosworth and Kit Lange

Readers of PHS lately have seen a lot of articles about the ongoing gun rights fight here in WA.  You might think it doesn’t apply to you because you don’t live here in the Pacific Northwest.  You would be so very wrong; what we are fighting here in our state is coming to yours.  For some of you, it’s already there. You might think that us fighting over taking open carry firearms into the state legislature viewing galleries is a stupid argument and one that you don’t care about. Again, you’d be wrong. If you’re an American who values freedom, you should care very much about what’s going on here in Washington…regardless of where you live.

One of the questions we keep hearing here about the ban on open carry in the legislative galleries is “What’s the big deal?  So you can’t bring your rifle into the gallery.  Why do you even NEED to?”  Even those who claim to support the Second Amendment say these things; almost as if we need to ensure that the exercise of our rights is only done 1) in areas where no one can possibly see and be afraid of us, and 2) if we demonstrate that we have a “need” to exercise it there, at that time and in that fashion.

The problem with this school of thought is inherent, and shows a basic misunderstanding of what rights are.  Rights can be exercised at any time, for any reason, without first having to prove a “need” or justification for their exercise.  In fact, as I’ve discussed here before, the second that you allow the infringement of your rights because of someone else’s fear or offense, you’ve handed them the key to take ALL of your rights.

In the case of the State House and Senate, they are “reinterpreting” existing rules about ‘props’, such as signs, buttons, or other things generally used in a demonstration being banned from the gallery.  They have decided that firearms are now props.  Make no mistake—firearms are not props.

One person, while explaining to me why these rules should be enforced, said that “The galleries are a place to observe government, not protest government.”  The Declaration of Independence disagrees.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. [emphasis added]
The Washington State Constitution also weighs in with its first sentence:
All political power is inherent in the people, and governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are established to protect and maintain individual rights.
At no time in either document does it say that the government grants these rights; they are inherent.  It is the government’s job to protect and maintain these rights, not infringe upon them or find creative ways to strip them away.  If the government only derives its power from the consent of the governed, in whom all political power resides, and if the entire purpose of government’s existence is to protect and maintain those inherent rights, then the only possible course of action is for the government and its agents to stand down in this matter.  In short, they have absolutely no right to tell the citizens they cannot view the proceedings of their own government while armed. They have no power to dictate the exercise of the citizens’ rights…period.

Legislators have decided that openly carried firearms are not arms, protected by the Second Amendment.  Instead, they have been reclassified as props—which, by the way, are also protected, just under the First Amendment instead. Seemingly, it does not matter if the firearm in question is loaded or not; according to their rules, a loaded and holstered handgun carried on a man’s hip is still a prop.  At what point, pray tell, does the legislature consider it arms, protected by the Second Amendment?  This is another example of “Yes, but.”  Yes, the Second Amendment of the Constitution protects your right to bear arms, and so does the Washington State Constitution, but… we’ve decided that you can’t exercise that right here in the Capitol while viewing the proceedings of your own government, which exists to protect that exact right you’re trying to exercise.

The real irony comes when you do go ahead and load that firearm.  It is still considered a prop, but now you’re also looked at as a threat.  It’s supposedly still not protected under the Second Amendment, according to these people, but it’s a threat.  They are afraid of you, because you are openly carrying a firearm, I mean, a prop.

We understand that the House and Senate in the State of Washington have a longstanding tradition regarding the display or allowance of certain items in the galleries for the sake of decorum and order.  Those traditions, however, cannot violate the Supreme Law of the Land, which are the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Washington.  Any and all traditions must fall within the confines of government as defined by the founding documents of our state and our nation, and they must honor our unalienable rights.  If they do not, then they are null and void and must be defied.
Instead of asking questions like “Why do you need to carry a firearm into the gallery,” you should be asking an even bigger question, with a much more disturbing answer:

Why does the legislature fear citizens who are armed?  Why do they want us to leave our guns outside the place where they make the laws that govern us?

Not all WA State legislators are afraid of people watching them while wearing guns.  Some stand and applaud when citizens walk into the gallery with them.  Some take photos with these citizens holding guns.  Some meet with them in their offices later, gladly welcoming them and their guns, offering their own chairs to sit in and treating their citizen visitors like they themselves truly do serve only by consent of the governed.  Do you know why these legislators do that?  Because they have nothing to hide.  They vote in line with the people’s rights, and the Constitution that limits their powers.  They act in accordance with their role as public servants, elected to protect the rights of the populace.  They know that they, too, are citizens, and they work to protect the rights of all of us.

Other legislators, however, are afraid of guns in the gallery because they know they are not acting in line with their role or their limited powers.  In fact, some of them are actively working behind the scenes, sneaking in secret to usurp their powers and take away the rights of the people.  They work in cliques and gangs to effect more control and more power for themselves.  They purposely keep bills from moving forward in the legislative process.  The last thing they want is to be reminded by citizens sitting in the gallery holding rifles that they are accountable to the people, and that we can and will remove them from office if they don’t do their job.  It has already been done in Colorado, and it can be done here as well.

The bottom line is this: It is the duty and the birthright of the American people to hold their government accountable.  We will not be told by the government that we cannot hold them accountable for the decisions they make on our behalf.  We demand that they recognize the limits of their power as outlined in the United States Constitution and that of the State of Washington.  We also give notice that even if they continue to refuse to recognize our rights and their role in maintaining them, we will still exercise them.  We will not comply with any attempts to infringe upon them.  We will stand, and we will hold our representatives accountable for their actions. Remember Colorado.

This fight may be happening in Washington State, but it is not our fight.  It is yours.  We fight for Connecticut, for Arizona, for New Mexico and New York and California, and every other state currently targeted by gun grabbers and unconstitutional legislation.  This is the fight of the American people.  Michael Bloomberg and his ilk laid their foundation here in Washington, thinking that we were weak.  I-594 may have passed here due to the apathy and misinformation of voters (including some gun owners), but the patriots here are not weak.  If he and his friends—and the Washington State Legislators—think that we will lie down and accept our rights being taken from us…they are wrong.  American patriots are armed…and we will remain armed.

We will stand.

Source is here

For further Reading and the second link is really a MUST READ:

An Open Letter to the Washington State Patrol

The Myth of WA Gun Rights Groups: Adina Hicks and Alan Gottlieb

For extra credit:

The SPLC is a Hate Group

 


Tags: Washington State, I-594, I-591, Adina Hicks, Alan Gottlieb, SAF, Safe Act, Colorado, New York State, Oregon, Nevada, Second Amendment, First Amendment, U.S. Constitution, Tyranny, Communism, Socialism, Bloomberg, EverytownUSA, Freedumb, Stupid moms against guns, Code Pink, Freedom. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the Patriot's Corner. Thank

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