Why Gun-Ownership is as Important as Religion 
Rocklandcountytimes.com
BY ANTHONY MELE
Anti-gun advocates reading this are already saying no way can gun-ownership be as important as religion. For that matter, I say gun ownership is as important as speaking your mind, as reading a newspaper, as much as whatever you do in the privacy of your home. By now, the anti-gun advocate and average reader have concluded that the author of this piece is just wrong. I’ll prove I‘m right before you reach the end of this article.
Exhibit A: The Bill of Rights. The 1st Amendment states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” The 2nd Amendment states: "...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
The Bill of Rights proves that gun-ownership is as important as your freedom to practice your religion, to speak what is on your mind, to be safe in the privacy of your home, freedom of the press, to get together and plan to remove political officials from office and organize a coalition of a political party to get it done. All of this is equal to the freedom, the right, and the duty of free citizens to own firearms. The "right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” That means it cannot be hindered or prevented.
The first clause; "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State...” means a well-regulated militia, a group of armed free citizens, is necessary to protect their individual freedoms. A standing army as well as a free citizens militia, did not preclude, replace or infringe upon private gun ownership, it required it when the Bill of Rights were ratified December 15, 1791. This was the clear intent of the Constitutional framers.
Exhibit B: "The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution...”[Signed by Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, Speaker of the House of Representatives. John Adams, Vice-President of the United States and President of the Senate, March 4, 1789].
The American Revolutionaries who became elected officials in the government they established with their own blood and treasure, expressed to all future generations of elected officials their desire to "prevent misconstruction” or "abuse of powers," meaning to undo what they have done or abuse the limited authority the Constitution conferred upon them, set up amendments to limit government power over the citizenry. This meant in plain language, hands off of our freedoms to worship, protest, speak, write, assemble and keep enough fire-arms to protect those individual freedoms from any future government with the temerity to try.
Their voices are admonishing NY Attorney General Schneirderman, Senators Gillibrand and Schumer, Congressmen Engel and Lowey. They have been relentlessly obtuse to the intent of the American Revolutionaries; who foresaw the emergence of these types of politicians, hell bent on overstepping their limitations and infringing on our liberty.
Senator Gillibrand has been propped up to introduce another sugar coated infringement called the "Gun-Trafficking Prevention Act.” Add that to other imaginary anti-gun laws that are supposed to protect us from lawbreakers. Taking firearms away from the lawful to prevent gun crimes is like taking away cars from sober people to prevent drunk driving. These politicians know full well that disarming the public only leaves them vulnerable to the armed criminal and creates greater dependency on bigger government. As a federal firearms licensee, I submit for your approval that their insidious intent is not to protect us, but to disarm us.
Thomas Jefferson said: "Those who beat their swords into plow shares will end up plowing the fields for those who didn’t.”
Anthony Mele, MA, Diplomacy, and International Conflict Management, was the 2010 GOP candidate for Congressional District 17 and a former intelligence staff NCO for high level national security officials in the Pentagon