Open letter to Rep Robert Hurt (VA 5th)

The Gunpowder Incident of April 20, 1775

Of all the revered figures who lived and died in the 5th district, I've only ever seen you pay tribute to Patrick Henry.  Should I ever visit Red Hill, I hope to find the opportunity to see Booker T Washington's nearby birthplace.   [note... searching 'Booker' on Rep. Hurt's website, I found a trip album with one picture of a BTW visit, along with 4 of a nearby UPS store]  I don't know if Booker T wanted to arm his people, but Marcus Garvey and Sutton Griggs likely did.  Malcolm X most certainly did.  And I bet there are people ready to repeat Oklahoma City and other atrocities in the name of keeping their guns, while keeping them out of the hands of Booker T and Malcom X's people.  And out of my hands, too.  I'm seeing these people crawl out from under their rocks and imagine you being wholly sympathetic to their fears of black helicopters and fluorescent light bulbs.

But while unsympathetic to their tirades, I am sympathetic to their arsenals.  Hunting is not the purpose the the second Amendment.  I don't really think private arsenals for protection in the Zombie Apocalypse or whatever these people are afraid of is the purpose of the second Amendment either.  When the NRA talks about good guys with guns, my thoughts immediately turn to George Zimmerman, a self appointed good-guy with a gun.  My biggest fear is not of bad guys, but of such good guys.  All those 'good guys' ranting on Fox News and EIB radio about being robbed of Christmas and whatever else by the advance of society to places unfamiliar to them.

Anyhow, despite their evident insanity, and profligate hostility, I don't advocate you are anybody else vote to restrict their ability to -- a line I love from "Fog of War" [ I misspoke.  The movie I have in mind was Path to War] -- "jump the White House fence and lynch their President."  I'd have done exactly that should George W Bush have made unilateral WMD attack on Iran or anywhere else -- and I announced that intent and wished others would.  American hegemony is accountable to no external force, and restraint can only come from a citizenry whose outrage of actions taken in our name provoke "Second Amendment Remedies".  And tolerance of private arsenals by the McVeighs of the world, who I fear 100 times more than the Aziz's of the world, is part of that restraint.

But, what is lost in discussion centered upon sportmen's rights is "A well regulated militia."  What made America work, when anti-royalist and anti-colonial and other revolutions descended into turmoil?  It was Committees of Safety, in my mind.  It was organization of communities under ad-hoc purposeful service organizations.  It was Patrick Henry in Williamsburg and the Minutemen of Concord.  Would that we could nurture similar genius within and outside our borders today.  We crush that genius, it seems, and nurture wackiness.  Yours has certainly been nurtured.

Anyhow -- bottom line --- Article I Section 8 of the Constitution authorizes Congress...

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress

I'm aghast that nobody has challenged Congress or the President on exceeding this authority by sending National Guard units on foreign adventures.  I'm aghast that the very name "National Guard" robs States of autonomy over their military arms.  I'm aghast that regulation of militia is not appropriately practiced at either a state or federal level, whereby private arsenals might be, as the Constitution not only provides, but demands, confiscated, with due process and reparations, to public purposes.

That's the Constitution.  You pay it lip service when it serves your ends. but in a matter of well-regulated Militia, you're with the McVeighs of the world.  Enemy of the State.  A bad guy with a gun, like Zimmerman.