Intent of the founding documents
America’s founding concepts written down on paper are referred to as the founding documents. Four of these documents are:
The Declaration of the Causes & Necessity of Taking Up Arms
The Continental Congress wrote the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms on June 6, 1775. It explains why Americans were at war with the legal, constitutional government of the American colonies. This occurred 13 months prior to the Declaration of Independence, a document possible only because the colonists did not submit their “unregistered assault weapons” to government control at Lexington and Concord.
In order to retain their natural rights, Americans were forced to take up arms. 25,000 American died carrying “unregistered assault rifles” in the 8 years of war that established American independence. The document states — “The arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume … We will … employ for the preservation of our liberties, being with one mind resolved to die freemen, rather than to live as slaves.”
The Declaration of Independence
The war for independence was 13 months old when the Declaration of Independence was written. Independence was not the reason that the minutemen had fired on government troops at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. The minutemen were defending their God-given right to have firearms, being fully aware that a heavily armed citizenry was the only source of freedom. It had became clear to the Continental Congress that the British government would not stop its assault on the rights of the colonists — independence was the only option.
The 56 members of the Continental Congress that signed the Declaration of Independence could be hung for this treasonous anti-government act. These men pledged “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor” in support of the Declaration. Some paid with their “Lives” and their “Fortunes,” but none gave up their Sacred Honor. The Declaration of Independence established “God” as the source of natural rights, and declared a “Duty” and “Right” of the people “to throw off such government” that abuses and usurps natural, God-given rights.
The Constitution for the United States of America
The Articles of Confederation were replaced by the Constitution for the United States of America, primarily to give the federal government more power over taxation and commerce. The “united STATES of AMERICA” (as it appears on the Declaration of Independence) authored both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution for the United States of America. Note that the STATES were “united,” and the Constitution was written to establish a government for the union of the states, to be called the United States of America.
Only 39 of the 55 Founding Fathers at the Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution. Sixteen refused and warned that the powers being transferred to the new government could be used to take away the freedoms just established. They were right — the power to tax and the power to control “commerce” are being used to override the Bill of Rights — to control Americans, their rights, and soon, their guns.
The Constitution only limits government if citizens actively enforce government limitations.
The Bill of Rights
Since the Constitution only assigned 17 limited powers to the new government many of the Founding Fathers considered a bill of rights unnecessary. But the anti-Federalists feared the power being transferred by the Constitution and wanted no misunderstanding — government was severely limited, and natural rights were not to be “infringed.”
The purpose of the Bill of Rights was to clarify that “unalienable rights,” which existed before government was formed, could not and would not be “infringed” by the federal government in any way — PERIOD! But, as many of the Founding Fathers warned, the Bill of Rights has been trampled by the unchallenged power of the government of the United States.
The 2nd Amendment “right to keep and bear arms,” the true source of America’s freedom and liberty, is about to disappear at the hands of the once limited government formed to protect and defend the rights of all Americans. The Bill of Rights only limits government if Americans understand and claim their rights.