I sent a copy of this letter to every member of the Virginia state legislature. The letters should be arriving pretty soon:

About a week ago I came back to my home state of Texas from the Jan 20 Virginia Lobby Day rally.

I’m not a VA citizen, so didn’t have a chance to do any lobbying, and besides that, they wouldn’t let me in the gate with my 12’x20’ Come And Take It flag and poles.

So, thought I’d send you a note to open a dialog with you.

Some members of the Virginia state government seem to think that 50% + 1 of them can make any law they please. However, our Constitution is built on the concept of unalienable rights, which means, no majority of any size may infringe on God-given rights.

One of those rights is the “right to keep and bear arms,” which the Constitution says, “shall not be infringed.”

As you probably would agree, assault weapons are “arms.” It follows, then, that they are covered by the Second Amendment.

However, it seems certain members of your government are intent on violating the Second Amendment by infringing on the keeping and bearing of assault weapons, and various accessories for arms.

Some in your assembly are also intent on violating various Constitutional rights of your citizens via “Red Flag” laws.

Tens of thousands of us rallied in Richmond this past weekend to dissuade the anti Second Amendment crowd from such violations.

Unfortunately, it seems the majority of those in control of your state government don’t care about the Constitution, and are intent on forcing their unconstitutional laws on the populace, and intend to do so by violent means.

One question arises: what can stop those members from infringing on the Constitutional rights of their citizens?

1. We can hope they listen to the strong opposition represented by the rally. Consider that those who came are only a small part of those who will stand against violations of the Second Amendment.

2. We can hope that the pro-gun minority of legislators can delay the attempts of the majority to violate the Second Amendment.

3. Failing the above, we can challenge the unconstitutional legislation in the courts, and hope that the courts will intervene. (The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and not the courts, so if the courts contradict the Constitution, the Constitution overrules the courts.)

4. If delaying tactics work at all, perhaps the infringing representatives can be voted out of office when their term expires.

5. If unconstitutional laws are passed in spite of the above, many law enforcement officials, and many lesser magistrates have publicly stated they will not enforce such laws, and they have declared Second Amendment sanctuaries, where the rights of their citizens will be protected from said laws.

But, what if all the above fails, and your majority finds someone to violently enforce their infringement of the Constitution. Then what?

Enter history.
Did you see the big Come And Take It flag on the corner of West Grace Street and 9th Street during the rally?

It is a modernized version of a flag from October 2, 1835 in Texas. The flag was flown with the first shots of the Texas revolution, when Mexican troops were marching to seize a cannon from the Texians in the town of Gonzales. The Texians refused to be disarmed, and the ensuing conflict ended about seven months later with Texas gaining its independence from Mexico. More historical details are in the enclosed booklet.

I would also like to remind you of history which is much closer to Virginia, which you probably know: when British troops marched to seize the cannons, small arms, powder, and shot from Lexington and Concord.
Captain Parker met the British troops on Lexington Green and said famously to the minutemen present: “Stand your ground, don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”

Well, as you probably know, the British paid no heed to the minutemen, Major Pitcairn ordered them something like: “Lay down your arms, you ______ rebels, and disperse.”

Perhaps from history you can see that those seeking to confiscate arms were tyrants?
Perhaps from history you can see that those who resisted them were patriots?

Above are several historical incidents where governments used force in attempts to disarm citizens, which the citizens resisted.

What did our founding fathers prescribe as remedies for such grievous violations of God-given rights?

Alexander Hamilton addressed one remedy if militia from one state were ordered to another state to violate the rights of the people:

“the militia, irritated by being called upon to undertake a distant and hopeless expedition, for the purpose of riveting the chains of slavery upon a part of their countrymen, direct their course, but to the seat of the tyrants, who had meditated so foolish as well as so wicked a project, to crush them in their imagined intrenchments of power, and to make them an example of the just vengeance of an abused and incensed people”

Did you catch that? When ordered to violate the rights of the people, the militia would instead deal with those in power who were attempting to contravene the Constitution.

I would like to suggest that the rally on the 20th represented a show of force by the militias of many states, peacefully conveying the message to your government that we the people will not stand idly by while your legislature rivets the chains of slavery upon part of our countrymen, but will respond accordingly. We peacefully petitioned your legislators to reconsider their intentions.

The proposed laws can by enforced only by violence, and since they directly violate the Second Amendment, the enforcement of those laws is nothing less than the violent overthrow of the Second Amendment.

Consider that the Second Amendment is the final check and balance against an unconstitutional government, and is the only real teeth in the Constitution. Once we lose our right to keep and bear arms, we lose the means to physically secure our rights, because power comes from the barrel of a gun. The loss of the Second Amendment is the defacto loss of the entire Constitution, because we will no longer have the means to defend it besides our voices, which the Virginia legislature has already demonstrated they will ignore.

If we are to retain our freedom, when all other avenues have been tried and failed, as Patrick Henry said:

“Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free– if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending–if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained–we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!”

Please give some option besides an appeal to arms, that does not involve compromising our rights.

In all honesty, I don’t believe that the majority of the Virginia government care about the Constitution, or what will be the consequences of their attempts to violently overthrow the Second Amendment. Their thinking has been clouded with marketing slogans such as “gun safety” and “common sense,” and they have lost the ability to see arms from a historical perspective.

The onus, then, falls to us, the people of the United States who understand history, who love life and liberty, and who will defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, to secure liberty for us and our posterity.

We must be wise and patient, but not allow ourselves to be disarmed, or our Second Amendment rights to be infringed: not us as a body, and not so much as one household at a time, which is the goal of “red flag” laws. We absolutely will not compromise so much as one more gun screw.

We will not comply.
From all over the United States, we WILL defend the Second Amendment from violent overthrow.

Please let me hear your thoughts on this matter.

For Life and Liberty,
David.