Quote of the day—Patrick Morrisey

Banning certain types of firearms steps on the Second Amendment. Law abiding gun owners routinely use these firearms for self-defense or sporting. Such an unconstitutional act cannot stand.

Patrick Morrisey
West Virginia attorney general
August 29, 2017
Attorneys General From 21 States Ask Supreme Court to Hear Suit Against Maryland’s Assault Weapons Ban
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

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One thought on “Quote of the day—Patrick Morrisey

  1. “Such an unconstitutional act cannot stand.”

    That’s an obvious falsehood. Of course an unconstitutional act can and will stand if enough, or certain, people want it to stand. It happens every day. Who is going to stop it? You? Your pet dragon?

    Or is Morrisey using the word “such” to set apart this particular unconstitutional act from all the others, e.g. “Such an unconstitutional act as this particular one cannot stand, though clearly others are acceptable”?

    And so I find it often useful to clarify any statement in law or rhetoric as “cannot stand” or “shall be done” or “shall not be done”, or “do this, don’t do that”, etc. with a simple question;

    Or else what?

    It brings to light the simple fact that civilization and law, no matter how peaceful and decent and no matter how you dress it up, is maintained by force and the threat of force. Perhaps more clear would be to say “violence and the threat of violence”.

    When I am told for example that I must give up half of all my life’s work to taxation, I would prefer having the gun(s) actually pointed in my face, for only a fool would capitulate to such tyranny without a credible threat of overwhelming violence. It would make the conversation clear and honest for all parties, you know, such that we would all truly understand one another.

    And what could be better than universal understanding?

    Likewise, when we say (in contradiction to the obvious) that a particular unconstitutional act “cannot stand” we are either bluffing or we are willing to the bring the brute force necessary to back the statement. It can be only one or the other.

    It’s kind of funny now that I think about it;
    Do you love your life so dearly that you’re willing to live under ever increasing tyranny to save it? The answer for practically all of us of course is “Yes” and that’s the only way tyranny can exist.

    Come to think of it, Jesus spoke of this very thing, clearly and directly;
    “He that seeks to save his life shall lose it.”
    He was speaking in spiritual terms of course, but these concepts are manifest throughout the physical world; “…on Earth as it is in Heaven.”

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