“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.” – Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution 

The principles of good government are not hard to understand. Most are exceedingly simple and easy to grasp when explained properly. The right of self-defense is one of the easiest of all laws to explain, defend, and justify – especially in the United States with our Heaven-sent Constitution. 

Government exists for one very specific reason – to defend and secure the rights of the people it governs. 100% of the power exercised by government officers is delegated to them by sovereign individuals acting in their collective capacity as “the People.” These powers are called “enumerated powers” because they are each individually spelled out in the compact between the People and their representatives called the Constitution.  

The Declaration of Independence expresses the point of government more eloquently and memorably than anywhere else. It affirms: 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” 

Let’s rephrase the idea. Individuals have an equal claim on rights and Liberty. These rights come from God. They are “sacred and undeniable,” to quote Thomas Jefferson’s rough draft of the Declaration. Because they are sacrosanct and inestimably precious, government was created by men for the express purpose of ensuring their free exercise. 

Because rights are given by God to individuals, individuals alone have the right and prerogative to defend and exercise them. However, when individuals group together in society, it becomes easier and more convenient to have some third party provide for the collective defense and ensure everyone the free and equal exercise of their rights. This third party is called government. All of its powers are conditional grants delegated to it by people for one reason only – to defend God-given, individual rights. 

Sadly, those agents chosen to represent the People in government and wield their delegated power are too often greedy, conniving, power-hungry, usurping, would-be tyrants. They take power unto themselves that was never delegated or specifically enumerated in the Constitution, thus breaking the societal compact and violating their oaths to uphold and defend the Constitution. 

There is no divine right of kings in America – or anywhere else. It is a myth created by those seeking to dominate their fellow men. Thomas Jefferson rejected this dangerous myth in these words: 

“The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth that the mass of mankind has not been born, with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of god” (Thomas Jefferson to Roger C. Weightman, June 24, 1826). 

No one has a right to rule over another, with the exception of parents over children until they come of age. All governments hold a conditional form of power and authority. The condition is that they use that delegated power and authority to safeguard individual rights. Yet, the fundamental condition of humanity is that individuals retain full control over their own rights, including those they conditionally delegate. They can exercise their rights, powers, and authority when government abuses its power, fails to fulfill its purpose, or when necessity demands. 

The Constitution mandates that Congress alone has the authority to declare and make war. No other branch of government, and not even state governments, may lawfully make war without congressional approval, with one exception. The exception is found in the last clause of Article 1 detailing the powers delegated by the People to Congress. It states: 

“No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, . . . engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.” 

This clause contains a greater principle: When necessity calls, the call must be answered. The rights of self-defense, which God gave to individuals in the beginning as the means of defending the Liberty and agency He gave them at the same time, may be exercised without governmental approval when necessity demands. 

Were Mexico to suddenly invade Texas, Texas would have a right – even a duty – to call up its militia and wage war against the invading hordes regardless of whether Congress sanctioned the action or formally declared war. So, too, individuals may use their God-given right to defend themselves and their rights without consulting local police, county officers, the state governor, Congress, or anyone else beforehand. The right of self-defense is inherent. After the right of life, without which all other rights could not exist, no other right is more logical, justifiable, and reasonable than the individual right of self-defense. 

This may be looked at a different way. Government has the privilege of self-defense. Where did government get this privilege and power? They received them from the People who delegated them. Ergo, the People, which is comprised of individuals working together by consent with other individuals, have the right of self-defense. 

Notice that I said government has the privilege of self-defense, not the right. Government has no rights. Government is the creature, not the creator. It must bow to the whims of its creators. Its creators are individuals working together as “the People.” If the People decide to amend, alter, or abolish their creation, they have every right to do so. This right to amend, alter, or abolish government is inherent in the People and is spelled out by the Declaration of Independence. 

Immediately after the Declaration states that government exists to secure our God-given rights, it contains this bold assertion: 

“[W]henever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” 

These lines are every bit as essential as the more famous ones preceding them in the Declaration. They make it crystal clear that government has no rights, powers, or authority in and of itself, that the People are the masters over government, and that the People not only have a right but a sacred duty to amend, alter, or abolish the government they created when it violates or fails its purpose to secure God-given rights equally to all. 

There are a mere 1,300 words in the Declaration of Independence. Each word was chosen carefully and deliberately first by the great Thomas Jefferson and then sanctioned by the fifty-six men who signed it and the inhabitants of the states who embraced it as their mission statement. Of all the things they could have included, they elected to emphasize the purpose of government, the power of the People over their government, and the right of people to alter or abolish their government. 

These truths have many applications to self-defense. First, they show that rights – including the right to defend all other rights – come from God and are held by individuals. Second, they show that government was created and commissioned to secure the rights of individuals, including their right of self-defense. Third, they show that people may exercise their rights – yes, even their awesome right of self-defense – when government oversteps its bounds or when necessity requires. 

No one has ever taken away your right of self-defense. Unless you have violated the equal rights of another individual, you retain your rights fully and in their entirety. The laws and regulations that claim otherwise are by their very nature null and void. How can the creature take away anything from the creator? It can’t. And neither can government take away your rights. You may acquiesce to their attempts to disarm and enslave you, but government can’t strip you of something that God gave you. 

Were government to try to disarm you or take away any of your rights, the compact between the People and government would be snapped in two and you would be left sovereign and in full possession of your rights. This quiver of rights includes in it the right, and duty, to alter or to abolish government and to erect new guards to safeguard your rights. 

This understanding is not radical; it is fundamental. It was the understanding of our forefathers. It’s spelled out in the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution specifically confirms, and implicitly affirms, the individual right of self-defense in several powerful ways. The Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights is the most famous. It proclaims: 

“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.” 

Sometimes people get caught up on the “well regulated Militia” part, twisting it in their vain attempt to make it seem that the militia was under the control of the government. The militia, simply, was the whole body of armed citizens. That is to say, the People – the same “People” from whom government derives all of its powers. Congress is actually mandated to fund militias in the states that will be locally controlled, but they have conveniently ignored that provision. 

The Founding Fathers left no doubt as to who the militia was and that it was their unassailable right to keep and bear arms for their own self-defense. I provide several quotations. First, in 1787, as the newly written Constitution was being debated, the Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention declared: 

“That the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves and their own state, or the United States, or for the purpose of killing game; and no law shall be passed for disarming the people or any of them, unless for crimes committed, or real danger of public injury from individuals” (Minority of the Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention, December 12, 1787). 

To the people of Pennsylvania, people had the right to keep and bear arms for numerous purposes, including personal self-defense, the defense of their state and country, and for hunting. So firm were they on this point that they said “no law shall be passed for disarming the people,” unless they had committed crimes or posed “real danger of public injury.” 

Second, the New Hampshire Ratifying Convention said in 1788 that “Congress shall never disarm any citizen, unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion” (New Hampshire Ratifying Convention Amendments, June 21, 1788). 

This is direct wording. To New Hampshire, no one except those in or having committed actual rebellion could be disarmed. A finger beyond that was unjust. 

Third, Patrick Henry averred: 

“The militia, sir, is our ultimate safety. We can have no security without it. . . . The great object is, that every man be armed. . . . Everyone who is able may have a gun” (Patrick Henry, Speech at the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1788). 

No one can mistake this statement from one of America’s most outspoken orators and statesmen. Henry said that the militia is comprised of every man who should be armed. Every person “who is able may have a gun.” There was no requirement to belong to a military organization to own firearms; owning arms for personal defense was a universal right. Henry would recoil in horror and revulsion at any thought to the contrary. 

Next, Joseph Story, a prominent justice on Supreme Court in the early Republic, said of the Second Amendment: 

“The importance of this article will scarcely be doubted by any persons who have duly reflected upon the subject. The militia is the natural defense of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpations of power by rulers. It is against sound policy for a free people to keep up large military establishments and standing armies in time of peace, both from the enormous expenses, with which they are attended, and the facile means, which they afford to ambitious and unprincipled rulers, to subvert the government, or trample upon the rights of the people . . . The right of citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a Republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them” (Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, Vol. 3). 

In the full quotation, Story said that the militia should be “well regulated” and trained in order to keep the People, as he said, “duly armed.” The easiest way to keep them prepared at all times to repel “foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpations of power by rulers” was to give them formal training and arms. This, he believed, would prevent future tyranny. He worried, however, that apathy and resistance to being martially trained to wield their arms would lead to indifference and, ultimately, contempt for the Second Amendment. Story predicted that this lack of care would “gradually undermine all the protection intended by this clause of our national bill of rights” if not checked. 

The salient truth is, however, that the militia, the citizens, or the People, may have their arms and use them against invaders, against insurrectionists, and against government. This is nothing but an echo of the Declaration of Independence which codified in law the People’s right of rebellion when their rights were being violated and the government misused. 

Finally, the town of Preston, Connecticut gave us this vow that we must adopt as our own: 

“All will agree that the people should retain so much power that if ever venality and corruption should prevail in our public councils and government should be perverted and not answer the end of the institution, viz., the well being of society and the good of the whole, in that case the people may resume their rights and put an end to the wantonness. In whatever government the people neglect to retain so much power in their hands as to be a check to their rulers, depravity and the love of power is so prevalent in the humane mind, even of the best of men, that tyranny and cruelty will inevitably take place” (Instructions of Town Meeting, November 26, 1787). 

Yet again we see that the purpose of government is to secure our rights. When it fails, the Second Amendment kicks in and the People have the power to “check their rulers,” tyranny, and cruelty. The People standing up in rebellion to tyranny is the ultimate use of self-defense. 

This fundamental right, this essential law of nature, “shall not be infringed.” End of debate. Period. 

Is this plain language unclear to anyone with a basic understanding of the English language? Of course not! The Webster’s 1828 dictionary says that “infringe” means: 

“1. To break, as contracts; to violate, either positively by contravention, or negatively by non-fulfillment or neglect of performance. A prince or a private person infringes an agreement or covenant by neglecting to perform its conditions, as well as by doing what is stipulated not to be done. 

“2. To break; to violate; to transgress; to neglect to fulfill or obey; as, to infringe a law. 

“3. To destroy or hinder; as, to infringe efficacy.” 

Let’s rephrase the Second Amendment with these definitions. The Second Amendment tells government that it must never break, violate, transgress, neglect, destroy, or hinder the People’s right to keep and bear arms. Period. No gun laws, restrictions, regulations, statutes, or policies are just, constitutional, or lawful. 

The exception – the only exception – is that individuals may forfeit their rights by violating the rights of others. A murderer, for instance, may have his fundamental right to life taken. A thief may be compelled to offer up his own property to pay back the bereaved. And an insurrectionist may have his firearms stripped from him if he attempts to rebel against constituted and just authority or breathes out seditious threats against the life, Liberty, or property of others. 

Linguistically, “shall not” is strong and unmistakable phraseology. It’s command language. One legal organization defines “shall not” like this: “Shall not or “must not” means a procedure is prohibited.” The federal government, therefore, is absolutely prohibited to violate our right to keep and bear arms for our own self-defense. 

A government website states the following about “shall” and “must”: 

““Shall” has three strikes against it. 

First, lawyers regularly misuse it to mean something other than “has a duty to.” It has become so corrupted by misuse that it has no firm meaning. . . . 

“. . . “must” is a better choice, and the change has already started to take place. The new Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, for instance, use “must,” not “shall.”” 

By their own reckoning, the government acknowledges that “shall not” means they “must not” violate the People’s right to keep and bear arms. It also admits that the government “has a duty to” not to violate in any way, shape, form, or fashion the Second Amendment with its guarantee of our God-given natural right to defend ourselves. “Shall not be infringed” is thus clear enough language for all but traitors and tyrants. 

Dear reader, your right to defend yourself with arms – any arms – is a sacrosanct, divinely-given, constitutionally-protected, common-sense, undeniable right. No one can justly strip you of your means of self-defense; nor can they do so without your acquiescence. Those who would take away your right to defend yourself have evil intentions in their hearts and should be not only distrusted, but immediately and assertively rejected as enemies to the Constitution, to America, and to human Freedom. 

Freedom is what’s at stake in this battle over our God-given right of self-defense. If we surrender our right to keep and bear arms in personal and collective self-defense, we open the door to a surge of demonic despotism. Think of the myriad of ways our corrupt, hijacked government has abused, mistreated, and violated us in spite of our 400 million privately-owned weapons. Can you fathom how much more savagely they would push us around and rape our rights if we didn’t have arms to defend ourselves?! 

The right of self-defense is a red line. Self-defense is the ultimate right – the defender of all others. Unless the Holy Spirit of the Lord tells you to personally comply for some higher reason known to your Creator, you must never comply with gun control totalitarianism. As Daniel rejected the king’s immoral ban on prayer, so, too, must you reject unconstitutional government decrees against your God-given right to defend yourself. Such disarmament attempts are devoid of logic, grounded in emotionalism, entirely unconstitutional, unarguably tyrannical, and utterly wicked. 

The Lord will fight our battles, but only if we’re in the battle. Sitting on the sidelines is submission and slavery. Not only will you lose your Liberty if you fail to fight, but you will lose your honor, your soul, and your exaltation in the Kingdom of God. These are the weighty matters of law, and we will account for them. Our Father in Heaven did not endow us with sacred rights so that we would surrender them when the spiritually wicked in high places demanded (Ephesians 6:12). 

We’re better than that. We’re freemen. We’re Americans. We’re endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, including the right to life, Liberty, property, and the means to defend them and hand them down to our children as a just inheritance. If the spirit of 1776 is not kindled in your heart, strike the match this instant. Bow down and humble yourself before your Heavenly King and swear on His altar, with our forefathers who forged this great nation, that your sacred rights shall not be infringed. 

Zack Strong, 
September 1, 2023