The founders of our country were very knowledgeable regarding the societies of ancient Greece and Rome. Many of the concepts built into our government in turn guided by our Constitution were based on that knowledge and on how those societies functioned.
Having experienced first-hand existence as subjects living under the Crown, the founders chose to go with the concept of citizens and to protect the rights of citizens when creating our country. The form of government they chose, was a constitutional republic.
According to Webster a citizen is defined as “a native or naturalized person who owes allegiance to a government and is entitled to protection from it”. On the other hand, Webster defines a subject as “one that is placed under authority or control or one subject to a monarch and governed by the monarch’s law”.
Finally, a constitutional republic has been described as “a form of government in which officials are elected by citizens to lead them as directed by their country’s constitution” – Aristotle.
A good argument can be made that those of us living in California experience life more like that of subjects than citizens. Many Californians have their rights abused by the government in many ways but let’s focus here on the plight of one group whose rights are consistently abused. Let’s focus here on Californians who own guns.
Last week Governor Newsom signed a slew of bills creating laws that crush the rights of law-abiding citizens who happen to own guns. I wrote about the bills and included links to each one in my article. I encouraged those interested to follow the links and judge the worthiness of the laws for themselves.
I won’t go through the specifics of the laws here but will point out that, generally speaking, they seem to blatantly ignore the rights of law-abiding citizens and in no way improve public safety or impede criminals. SB2 effectively ends concealed carry in California denying an individual’s natural right to self-protection. This right was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court just last year as protected by the Second Amendment (2A). Our rulers in California apparently have little regard for SCOTUS.
SB241, SB368, AB1420, AB1587, and AB1598 impede the ability of legal firearms dealers to do business infringing on the right of citizens to earn a living through legal means and having no impact on crime or public safety.
Anyone taking the time to read the bills will quickly realize the bills were written by petty, vindictive, ignorant people with the sole intent of harming a specific group of people with whom they disagree. A group that has been “othered”.
For those not familiar with the term othered, it refers to the attempt by one group to separate those with whom they disagree into a separate group that is “not like us” by promoting various stereotypes and propaganda. Once the us vs them mentality is achieved it is much easier for the first group to harm the second with little remorse because the second group is not viewed as equal but as having less worth. This is the view California politicians currently in power have of Californians who own guns. It is a view rulers have of their subjects.
This view is unfortunately not limited to gun owners but is applied to many Californians not part of the ruling elite. We see it in vaccine mandates, EV mandates, banning of gas appliances, unreasonable taxation, and the likely rationing of water and electricity because the rulers refuse to build infrastructure adequate to serve the people who elected them.
We are not a democracy but a constitutional republic and as such get to elect (or un-elect) those who govern us. So, the question to Californians is do we prefer to live as subjects of elite rulers or as citizens in a constitutional republic? Once that decision is made the choice becomes to sit and continue to do nothing and remain subjects or to get involved in the system and create the government and life we were intended to have. The people still have the power, the people still have the choice.
Most of the new laws will eventually be overturned by the courts as unconstitutional but Californians will have to live under them for the years that will likely take to happen. As long as Californians remain complacent and elect not to take an interest in choosing those who govern, the behavior of our ruling class is likely to only get worse. Despair not though California but look on the bright side, Prima Nocta is only one night.
©2023 Joseph T Drammissi
This article and more of Joe’s work covering the Second Amendment and other topics can be found on Substack at https://getagrip.substack.com
This article was originally posted on from San Diego County Gun Owners
