On January 5, US president Barack Obama unveiled his first major policy action of the new year: A batch of new victim disarmament — or, as its supporters call it, “gun control” — measures which he intends to impose by executive order.
The response from Republicans in Congress is, pardon the pun, weak tea. They merely accuse him of “executive overreach,” claiming that the powers he claims lie with Congress, not the presidency. He retorts that the orders are “well within [his] legal authority.”
Both sides are wrong. The language of the US Constitution’s 2nd Amendment is clear and its intended meaning is well-documented. The framers of that amendment — who had just emerged from a long war against the world’s most powerful army, a war won by an armed citizenry — understood the right to keep and bear arms as a right “of the people.” They specifically and intentionally barred the president, Congress, the state legislatures, your local city council, ANYONE, from infringing it. Every “gun control” law now on the books is unconstitutional and therefore, per Madison v. Marbury, void.
Not only is Obama’s executive order sortie, taken in conspiracy (“consultation”) with the Attorney General of the United States and other government functionaries, not within his legal authority, it’s a crime.
Under US Code Title 18, Section 241, “If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same … They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section … they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.”
I’ve heard it said that a grand jury will, if asked to do so by a prosecutor, “indict a ham sandwich.” Is there a prosecutor and a grand jury in the US brave enough to bring Barack Obama, Loretta Lynch and their co-conspirators before the bar of justice?
Probably not. But with 300 million guns in the hands of 100 million Americans, it’s unlikely that this regime’s attempted depredations can be made effective. Like Walt Whitman said, “resist much, obey little.”
Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.
PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY
- “Gun Control” — Can Someone Please Make That Man a Ham Sandwich?” by Thomas L. Knapp, Ventura County, California Citizens Journal, 01/05/15
- “Gun control — can someone please make that man a ham sandwich?” by Thomas L. Knapp, St. George, Utah Spectrum, 01/05/15
- “Obama’s executive order on gun control a crime,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Wisconsin State Farmer, 01/05/16
- “‘Gun control’ — can someone please make that man a ham sandwich?” by Thomas L. Knapp, Montgomery, Alabama Advertiser, 01/05/16
- “President breaks law with ‘gun control,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Davenport, Iowa Quad-City Times, 01/06/16
- “President breaks law with ‘gun control,'” by Thomas L. Knapp, Muscatine, Iowa Journal, 01/06/16
- “‘Gun control’: Can someone please make that man a ham sandwich?” by Thomas L. Knapp, Batesville, Arkansas Daily Guard (paywall), 01/05/16
- “Gun Control” — Can someone please make that man a ham sandwich?” by Thomas L. Knapp, Carolina Panorama, 01/07/16
- “Please make that man a ham sandwich,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Chicago, Illinois Southwest News-Herald, print edition, p. 6, 01/08/16
- “Gun Control — Can Someone Please Make That Man a Ham Sandwich?” by Thomas L. Knapp, Bell Gardens, California Sun, 01/07/16
- “Why ‘gun control’ is illegal,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Tribune-Review, 01/07/16
- “Gun Control” — Can Someone Please Make That Man a Ham Sandwich?” by Thomas L. Knapp, Uintah Basin, Utah Standard, 01/12/16
- “Gun Control” — Can Someone Please Make That Man a Ham Sandwich,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Sonoran News [Arizona], 01/13/16
- “Gun control and a ham sandwich,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Custer County, South Dakota Chronicle, 01/14/16