Ted Cruz: 2nd Amendment Is Ultimate Check Against Government Tyranny

[TomCADem]

I wonder whether the media will ask Ted Cruz whether it was appropriate for James T. Hodgkinson to exercise the 2nd Amendment remedies that Ted Cruz advocated?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/ted-cruz-second-amendment-government-tyranny

WASHINGTON — It’s a given that every Republican presidential candidate will run for president as a strong supporter of gun rights.

But Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is arguing that the Second Amendment includes a right to revolt against government tyranny, a point of emphasis uncommon for mainstream presidential candidates.

“The 2nd Amendment to the Constitution isn’t for just protecting hunting rights, and it’s not only to safeguard your right to target practice. It is a Constitutional right to protect your children, your family, your home, our lives, and to serve as the ultimate check against governmental tyranny — for the protection of liberty,” Cruz wrote to supporters in a fundraising email on Thursday, under the subject line “2nd Amendment against tyranny.”

This “insurrectionist” argument, as Second Amendment expert and UCLA law professor Adam Winkler calls it, is popular among passionate gun owners and members of the National Rifle Association. But major party candidates for president don’t often venture there.

[luvMIdog]

1. dude...you ARE the tyranny

[Kleveland]

2. You twisted motherfucker....

Just what the fuck do you think WE are trying to do here?

The tyranny is afoot!

Are you saying that YOU are going to shoot someone in the White House?

Pahleeeeze... you Republicans are really pieces of work..

[Warpy]

3. Yeah, sure, honey, let's see you face down a gunship with your little popgun

Right wing gunloons sure are stupid.

[jmg257]

4. Its all about the Militias...reduce the need for standing army, reduce the oppurtunity for tyrants

to control that much power.

"...it will be possible to have an excellent body of well-trained militia, ready to take the field whenever the defense of the State shall require it. This will not only lessen the call for military establishments, but if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little, if at all, inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their fellow-citizens. This appears to me the only substitute that can be devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against it, if it should exist.''

Hamilton, Federalist 29

Sort of obsolete these days, what with our HUGE standing armies...but it still is part of the BoR.

[billh58]

5. Myth: The Second Amendment is to Overthrow the Government

In the debate about gun control, many gun enthusiasts argue that the Second Amendment to the Constitution was written, not for the purposes of hunting or even self-defense, but specifically to give people the ability to rise up against the government when they no longer support that government.

- Snip -

Not only does the Constitution not say anything about bearing arms to use against the government, it specifically says the Militia can be called upon by the President to suppress insurrections against our government.

- Snip -

In 1794, during the Whiskey Rebellion, 5,000 men rose up to oppose the government. President George Washington called up the Militia in several states and personally led them to western Pennsylvania to put down the rebellion.

It’s not my intention here to argue that there isn’t a right to bear arms. The American people generally believe that there exists such a right, regardless of how the Second Amendment is interpreted. I am only pointing out that the claims by gun extremists about the intention of the Second Amendment being to allow the public to take up arms against our government is completely false. The Constitution, the Militia Act of 1792, and the actions of President George Washington certainly refute that claim.

http://www.progressivepress.net/myth-the-second-amendment-exists-to-enable-the-american-people-to-rise-up/

And finally, Treason:

“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.”

Article III, Section 3, Clause 1

http://www.heritage.org/constitution/#!/articles/3/essays/119/treason

Paul Rand and Ted Cruz in particular, and many "righteous" right-wing bastards in our Congress are treading very near to sedition when they encourage others to take up arms against our lawfully elected government. They are directly responsible for the dangerously armed right-wing militias comprised of uneducated skin-headed imbeciles who aspire to be Nazi wannabes.

[Permanut]

6. Any kind of objective reporting about the NRA..

or in any mention of the NRA, would include a disclaimer, something like this:

"The NRA, which represents only about 7% of American gunowners, says blah blah blah blah blah.."

[Doreen]

7. So, is this why we get hauled off to jail for shooting

anyone of law enforcement who is trying to hurt us or our family? Yeah, we can use our guns to fight tyranny if we do not use them.

[TomCADem]

8. Oregon standoff timeline: 41 days of the Malheur refuge occupation and the aftermath

No, if you are white male, and the President is black, then you might be hailed as a patriot on Fox News.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2017/02/oregon_standoff_timeline_41_da.html

Armed protesters took control of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters on Jan. 2, but the conflict over federal land management began years before that. Here's how the eastern Oregon standoff started and ended:

2012: Harney County ranchers Dwight Hammond Jr. and son Steven are convicted of arson for setting fires on federal land in 2001 and 2006. A federal judge sentences the elder Hammond to three months and the younger one to one year in prison.

Spring 2014: A 20-year dispute between rancher Cliven Bundy and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management over $1 million in unpaid grazing fees leads to an armed standoff on federally owned land in Nevada.

2015: After an appeals court overturns the Hammonds' original sentences, a federal judge issues new, five-year prison terms to each man, with credit for time already served.