Throughout history, dictators and tyrants have always wanted to take guns away from the people. Hitler confiscated guns once he took power in Germany, Stalin confiscated guns in Soviet Russia, and Mao confiscated guns when the communists took power in China. An armed population is one of the cornerstones of a free society, and our founders understood this very well. Unfortunately, most Americans don't seem to understand the Second Amendment in our day and time. The following is what the Second Amendment actually says...

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The phrase "shall not be infringed" was intended to leave no room for confusion.

Unfortunately, all sorts of restrictions have been put on our absolute right to keep and bear arms over time, and we need to fight to fully restore our rights as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

A lot of politicians say that they are "pro-gun", but most of them will only go so far. To me, being "pro-gun" means that you should be fighting to fully restore our Second Amendment rights. In particular, the following are three areas where many "pro-gun" politicians are often quite weak...

1. We Need Stand Your Ground Laws in All 50 States

If you are not familiar with "stand your ground" laws, the following is how Wikipedia defines them...

A stand-your-ground law (sometimes called "line in the sand" or "no duty to retreat" law) is a justification in a criminal case, whereby defendants can "stand their ground" and use force without retreating, in order to protect and defend themselves or others against threats or perceived threats. An example is where there is no duty to retreat from any place where they have a lawful right to be, and that they may use any level of force if they reasonably believe the threat rises to the level of being an imminent and immediate threat of serious bodily harm or death. One case describes "the 'stand your ground' law ... a person has a right to expect absolute safety in a place they have a right to be, and may use deadly force to repel an unlawful intruder."

Today, 28 states have adopted "stand your ground" laws formally, and a few others have adopted "stand your ground" in practice. But even where such laws have been passed formally, they are often way too weak.

We need very strong "stand your ground" laws in all 50 states, and we need to keep fighting for this until we get it done.

2. We Need To Abolish the BATFE

The BATFE has been used as a political weapon for decades, and there have been many instances where the authority that it has been given has been greatly abused. The following example comes from Breitbart:

A recently released Government Accountability Office (GAO) report shows that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) violated restrictions to compile information on U.S. gun owners.

According to the report, the ATF "has 25 firearms-related data systems, 16 of which contain retail firearms purchaser information from a federal firearms licensee (FFL)—such as firearms importers and retailers." Sixteen of these systems contain "retail firearms purchaser information," as it pertains to guns purchased from a federal firearms license holder (FFL).

Many have suggested reforming the BATFE, but I believe that the best approach would be to abolish it altogether. If we fully restored Second Amendment rights in this country there would be very little for this agency to do anyway, and any essential functions could easily be taken over by other federal law enforcement institutions.

3. We Need to Repeal the Major Federal Gun Laws

We have lived with some of these laws for so long that most people just assume that they are constitutional. There are so many federal laws that need to be repealed, but I think that a good place to start would be with these four major ones...

• National Firearms Act ("NFA") (1934): Taxes the manufacture and transfer of, and mandates the registration of Title II weapons such as machine guns, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, heavy weapons, explosive ordnance, silencers and disguised or improvised firearms.
• Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (1968): Prohibited interstate trade in handguns, increased the minimum age to 21 for buying handguns.
• Gun Control Act of 1968 ("GCA"): Focuses primarily on regulating interstate commerce in firearms by generally prohibiting interstate firearms transfers except among licensed manufacturers, dealers and importers.
• Firearm Owners Protection Act ("FOPA") (1986): Revised and partially repealed the Gun Control Act of 1968. Prohibited the sale to civilians of automatic firearms manufactured after the date of the law's passage. Required ATF approval of transfers of automatic firearms.

If I end up in Washington, I plan to work very closely with the Gun Owners Of America, the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance and other pro-gun groups to draft legislation which will fully restore our Second Amendment rights.

If you believe in what we are trying to do, I hope that you will support us. Whenever the left takes power, they unashamedly try to advance their anti-gun agenda. But when the right takes power, they seem to think that the status quo is okay.

The status quo is not OK, and now is the time to fight harder than ever for the rights that are guaranteed to us by the Second Amendment.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho's First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled "Living A Life That Really Matters" is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

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Michael Snyder

http://www.charismanews.com/politics/opinion/66332-we-need-to-pass-stand-your-ground-in-every-state-abolish-the-batfe-repeal-the-major-federal-gun-laws