The Civil Disobedience Begins Over Gun Registration
Martin Luther King, Jr. is an icon of the Left. He led a successful civil disobedience campaign. He made this often repeated statement:
“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
Here’s another one:
“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.”
What happens when a law is imposed on the people in direct violation of their constitutional rights? Are the people obligated to obey it? Is there any unrighteous in the civil disobedience?
“Connecticut gun owners are calling the state’s anti-gun bluff. The state recently passed a slew of anti-gun legislation, including a gun registration program for so called ‘assault rifles’ that has been received with less enthusiasm than Obamacare. In fact, many gun owners in Connecticut have elected to ignore the patently unconstitutional law in the same way that Millennials have ignored the IRS requirement for health insurance. And now, as the state issues threatening letters and increased confiscation rhetoric, citizens are telling the state: Come and take them.’”
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ. That’s Greek for “Come and take them.”
Are gun owners in Connecticut within their rights to refuse to register what the Constitution specifically gives them a right to possess?
The First Article of the Connecticut Constitution includes these two provisions:
SEC. 14. The citizens have a right, in a peaceable manner, to assemble for their common good, and to apply to those invested with the powers of government, for redress of grievances, or other proper purposes, by petition, address or remonstrance.
SEC. 15. Every citizen has a right to bear arms in defense of himself and the state.
A “remonstrance” is “an earnest presentation of reasons for opposition or grievance.” Ignoring what is a “patently unconstitutional law based on Article 1, Sec. 15 is a legitimate “remonstrance.”
Are members of the press required to register their iPads, laptops, and phones even though the Constitution states unequivocally that “No law shall ever be passed to curtail or restrain the liberty of speech or of the press” (Art. 1, Sec 5)?
Generally is a few people here and there who decide to protest immoral laws. The result is inevitable. But if thousands of people in s state resist in a peaceful way, it’s hard for teh state to take action.
The following is attributed to Benjamin Franklin: “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” Amen.