We The People Class Action Lawsuit

March 10, 2007
Gun Control Neuters The People:
A Profound Solution To Stop The Infringement

For decades, the US Congress, Executive law enforcement agencies and certain federal Courts have been cooperating in a collective decision to disarm all Americans except themselves.

Despite the exacting, and prohibitory language of the Second Amendment that specifically protects the individual’s Right to Keep and Bear Arms, the federal government has embarked on a broad program of regulation, licensing, and police action to eviscerate the natural Right as it existed since long before the Constitution was adopted.

The Right to Keep and Bear arms is so crucial to the protection of Life and Liberty that any infringement of that Right must be viewed as a high-order threat to Life and Liberty.

When exercised individually, the Right provides for the security of one’s person, family and property. When exercised collectively, the Right insures that the People always possess the means to free themselves from a despotic or tyrannical government.

There should be no doubt as to the true purpose of the Second Amendment, despite the platitudes of politicians who sermonize about public safety and the lengthy dicta of some federal judges who attempt to rewrite history and want us to believe that words do not mean what they say, and that we should passively defer to our political leaders for our protection.

The Right is not simply about the right to hunt ducks or shoot clay pigeons. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms is ultimately about the absolute Right of a free People to ensure that they always possess the collective capability to claim and exercise the Right of Revolution, if necessary, to secure Redress against constitutional torts and tyrannical government.

The Individual Right to defend one’s life and Liberty is self-evident. The Right to throw off tyranny and despotism is merely an extension of the individual Right.

Government has never been and will never be beneficent. It’s true nature, in fact, is evil. As Ronald Reagan once declared, “Government is the enemy of freedom.” As government gains ground, Liberty loses ground. We should always love our country but never our Government. They are two different things.

This empirical truth was well recognized by our Founders, thus the Bill of Rights.

Time, however, is working against the People and the Bill of Rights.

For instance, with public education having all but replaced private education, with civic education receiving short shrift in our government controlled schools, and with the People pre-occupied with their families, careers, and income and property taxes, the Government has been working to disarm the People as it steps farther and farther outside the boundaries drawn around its power by the terms of the Constitution, taking possession of a boundless field of power.

Government's natural inclination is to control the People and diminish Liberty. If the Rights protected by the Second Amendment are inevitably lost, the Light of Liberty will dim and die.

The Profound Alternative To Violence

The Founders, hoping that their progeny might never again have to suffer a violent revolution, included in the Bill of Rights a guarantee of another natural Right – the Right of the People to hold their government accountable to the Constitution without ever needing to fire a shot.

Such was the brilliance of the Founders.

They included in the First Amendment a guarantee of the “capstone” Right of the People to Petition the Government for Redress of Grievances. The Petition Clause provides a peaceful way for the People to hold the Government accountable to the Constitution.

It provides that if the People have evidence that the Government is oppressing them by violating any of their natural Rights, the People may submit their grievances to the Government, along with their request for Redress. Accordingly, the Government is obligated to respond. If the Government however, fails to respond, the People may withdraw their allegiance and obedience from the Government.

Of course, the Founders knew that if the First Amendment did not work, the Second would.

This is the genius of our Founders. It is the threat of violence reserved by the Second Amendment that forces our servant Government to peacefully submit to the First Amendment Right of Petition and the Sovereignty of the People. Failing to secure Redress through peaceful means, the People, via the Second Amendment, always possess the ability to utilize force to remove and replace abusive government.

Although rare, a number of federal judges are willing to recognize the true history, meaning, effect and significance of the individual Right guaranteed by the Second Amendment.

As recently as yesterday, in a 2-1 decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit struck down the ten year old ban on handguns by the District of Columbia. Writing for the majority, Senior Circuit Judge Silberman wrote:

”The right of self preservation, in turn, was understood as the right to defend oneself against attacks by lawless individuals, or, if absolutely necessary, to resist and throw off a tyrannical government.” Parker, et al. v. District of Columbia, (Case No. 04-7041), (decided March 9, 2007) [emphasis added]

In Parker, the District of Columbia claimed it had absolute power not only to license, but to outright ban all handguns. The Court of Appeals rejected the assertion. We recommend everyone read this important ruling, which reiterates the true nature and purpose of the Second Amendment.

The United States Supreme Court will undoubtedly agree to hear the appeal by the District of Columbia. Let us pray the Court will not dishonor the Second Amendment as it did the Right of Property in its ruling in the Kelo case and the Right to Worship as it did in the Lee case..

Click here to read the March 9, 2007 Parker Gun Control decision.

Overall, the attack on the Second Amendment has been systemic and sustained. Over many decades it has become an institutionalized effort by the Government to disable the People’s ability to physically repel the growing abuses of federal power and encroachments upon Liberty.

As with most matters involving claims of federal power within the several states, the U.S. Government has crafted its legal framework for gun control around its limited interstate commerce authority. It is through this thin strand of legitimate constitutional authority that it seeks to unlawfully usurp the People’s Rights under the Second Amendment, and effectively neuter the American People, to prevent the People from exercising of the Right that was ultimately considered necessary, in 1776, to throw off the monarchial and tyrannical government that had been in place in America for 150 years.

Make no doubt -- despite the potential longer-range implications of court decisions such as today’s ruling by the D.C. Court of Appeals, the federal government – made up as it is by people who suffer the same human frailties we all suffer from – love of power and money -- will remain loathe to relinquish its false assertions that it has unlimited constitutional authority to regulate and control firearms within the fifty states.

Despite its clamor and claims, nothing could be further from the truth.

Fortunately, we, the People have the constitutional means to force the President and the Congress, without violence, to honor and defend the Constitution.

The Profound Capstone Right:
The Right To Petition For Redress of Grievances

Here is how common sense and the Founders tell us, We, the People, to go about obtaining relief from the acts of our Government’s officials that are repugnant to our Constitution:

First, upon being injured by the Government, the People are to draft and serve the Government with a written Petition for Redress of their Grievances. The People may rightfully Petition when Government has either abused its limited, delegated authority (such as when it applies the armed forces of the United States in hostilities overseas without a declaration of war), or when it has failed to perform a duty mandated by the Constitution (such as the current failure of the President to “faithfully execute” the immigration laws, as he is required to do by Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution).

Second, the Government is then required, as a servant and creation of the People, and by the legal nature of the Right of Petition, to respond to the Petition for Redress of Grievances.

Third, if the Government refuses to respond or to provide Redress as demanded in the Petition, the People possess the lawful authority to withdraw their allegiance and obedience from the Government until it provides Redress to the People.

In fact, we believe this Right of Petition is so powerful that the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service are prohibited by the Constitution from enforcing the Internal Revenue laws against those rightfully claiming and exercising the Right of Petition.

(Note: this specific legal issue is currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. See the lawsuit Information Center for We The People vs. The United States Government).

We again quote the Founders:

"If money is wanted by Rulers who have in any manner oppressed the People,
they may retain it until their grievances are redressed, and thus peaceably
procure relief, without trusting to despised petitions or disturbing the public
tranquility."
Journals of the Continental Congress,1:105-113

The Petition Regarding the Right
of the People to Keep and Bear Arms

Let’s take the first step. We, the People will now formally Petition the United States Government for Redress of Grievances regarding the infringement of the Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms.

CLICK HERE to SIGN the Petition For Redress of Grievances Regarding the Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms