Author: Ted Cruz
Quotes of Author: Ted Cruz
Just a few months into my tenure in the Senate, the Senate Judiciary Committee convened a hearing on Feinstein's renewed assault weapons ban, which included a hundred-page list of prohibited and permitted firearms. Sitting on the far side of the panel as the committee's second most junior Republican, I noted that the operative language of the Second Amendment-"the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed"-is the same as the operative language in the First Amendment and the Fourth Amendment, which protect "the right of the people peaceably to assemble" and "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures." I then asked a simple question of Senator Feinstein: Would she deem it consistent with the Bill of Rights for Congress to engage in the same endeavor that we are contemplating doing with the Second Amendment in the context of the First or Fourth Amendment? Namely, would she consider it constitutional for Congress to specify that the First Amendment shall apply only to the following books and shall not apply to the books that Congress has deemed outside the protection of the Bill of Rights? Likewise, would she think that the Fourth Amendment's protection against searches and seizures could properly apply only to the following specified individuals and not to the individuals that Congress has deemed outside the protection of the Bill of Rights? book-quoteFirst, historically, the ability of the people to defend themselves has been a critical precondition to securing liberty from monarchs and tyrants. For that reason, those in government power always want to disarm the populace, because an unarmed populace is subservient to the whims of their masters. When the British Crown became repressive, the American colonists did not throw off the yoke of tyranny by relying on impassioned speeches, pamphlets, or books. Instead they shouldered muskets, launched a revolution, and defeated the mightiest army on the face of the earth. Had the colonists been weaponless, we would likely be speaking with a British accent right now. book-quote
