Among our elected representatives are far too many willing to lie, cheat and steal to enrich themselves and further anti-American interests. There are also others who are historical illiterates, who know little or nothing about American history, the Constitution or our representative republic. Those Democrats/socialists/communists (D/s/cs) who insist on calling America “our democracy” rather than our representative republic are choosing that formulation not necessarily because they know the difference, but because they do know how to support current D/s/c narratives. Surely, they have at least a sense that by so doing, they’re sticking a thumb in America’s eye? Often those classes inhabit a single body. One such is Senator Mazie Hirono, Democrat of Hawaii.  

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday Sen. Mazie Hirono (D) claimed the Supreme Court of the United States created the ability to own guns via Heller (2008).

In video published by Forbes, Hirono began her opening remarks by referencing an earlier hearing in which the “entire panel” of witnesses agreed that “this nation is awash in guns.”

She went on to stress the phrase “awash in guns” at least three more times, then said, “Meanwhile, the Supreme Court in various decisions, Heller was pretty much an astounding decision to me when suddenly, individual could, [under] the Second Amendment, individuals could own firearms.”

“Suddenly?” “Astounding?”

She then jumped to the Bruen (2022) decision, feigning shock that, “Suddenly, we’re supposed to look to what the Founding Fathers thought about in…1791 or some astounding time-frame such as that.”

I know D/s/cs, including Congress dwellers, have long argued the Constitution is outmoded, and written in an archaic, incomprehensible language that has no application in modern America. Odd that my 15-year-old students were able to understand the Shakespearean English of the late 1500s, but D/s/cs think the colonial English of the late 1700s incomprehensible. To them, sure, but to literate and honest Americans willing to do a tiny bit of research, nah.

Graphic: YouTube Screenshot

We are “awash” in guns, which to a free people is a good thing indeed. But despite what people like Hirono claim, that doesn’t translate to violence. In a classic video, the invaluable Bill Whittle revealed America isn’t even in the top ten of nations in homicides per capita. As of 2012—things haven’t changed much if at all—America ranked number 111—in the world. We’re that high because of D/s/c ruled, anti-liberty/gun places like Detroit, St. Louis and Chicago. Whittle points out if America had the same rate—0.4 per 100,000—as awash in guns Plano, TX, America wouldn’t be at 111, but 211, only a fourth as bad as faux-violent Belgium at 1.6.

Graphic: YouTube Screenshot

Hirono is sort of right about one thing: the Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment, was ratified in 1791. It reads: 

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

The amendment consists of two clauses, the prefatory clause—"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state,” and the operant clause: “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Prefatory or introductory clauses serve as an introduction. Operant clauses carry the meaning.

Hirono, in referring to Heller (2008), presumably refers to this portion of that historic decision:

“The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home."

The court recognized the Second Amendment as a fundamental, unalienable right, a right given us by God, not established by man, hence a right government does not grant nor may legitimately take away. Americans always could keep and bear arms, and did, long before the Constitution was ratified, because God knows we need the right of self-defense and the means to affect it. The Bible also makes clear the reality of the disadvantage of the weak vs. the strong.

Bruen (2022) not only established a strict scrutiny requirement for consideration of Second Amendment cases, but affirmed the individual right to not only keep—own/possess—arms, but to bear them, concealed or openly, in public places with few limitations based not on some artificial multi-part test, but on “this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” Bruen built on Heller’s holding that arms in “common use” are presumptively constitutional.

Neither Heller nor Bruen held that “suddenly, individual could, [under] the Second Amendment, individuals could own firearms.” Both decisions merely acknowledged that ancient, unalienable right, a right D/s/cs like Hirono have no more power to rescind than they have to abolish the God that created it—and us.

Thank God for that.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.