Consider New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, when he affirmed that he did not consider the Bill of Rights when making his decisions. Or just take a gander at the insidious declarations from Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. We should find it very disconcerting as we realize that these leftists are defining essential as anything in alignment with their ideological agenda.
There is no place better than do a study of the progressive socialist left on this matter than their laboratory of leftism: California.
As reported by Cam Edwards over at Bearing Arms:
“California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is defending stay-at-home orders that impact the constitutional rights of residents, including their ability to purchase a firearm. In an interview with the Associated Press on Friday, Becerra said the U.S. and state constitution gives authorities broad leeway to “take actions which protect our communities and the individuals in those communities.”
A lawsuit last month by libertarian economist and actor Ben Stein argues that California’s unprecedented stay-at-home orders have effectively created a “soft police state” that put 40 million residents under the equivalent of indefinite house arrest, violating guarantees of freedom of assembly.
And several groups representing gun owners or buyers have filed multiple lawsuits alleging that some officials are restricting Second Amendment and other constitutional rights.
People still have the right to practice their religion, Becerra said, but “no one is entitled to endanger the life of someone else simply so that he can extend the exercise of his or her religion beyond means that would now start to imperil the health and life of another person.”
Becerra is right that state governments typically enjoy broad powers to address public health emergencies, but those powers are still limited by the U.S. Constitution. Becerra claims that people in California still have the ability to practice their religion, even if they can’t attend a church service in person, but that’s not the case when it comes to purchasing a firearm in some jurisdictions in California at the moment.
Church services can be moved online, and many congregations have shifted to drive-in services, allowing congregants to remain in their cars and listen to services through their car radio or speakers outside the church. Attorney Harmeet Dhillon, who’s litigating a freedom of religion challenge in California, says the state can mandate social distancing measures for those attending church, but simply shutting down services is beyond the constitutional scope of California’s police powers.
The violation is even more egregious when it comes the shutting down of gun stores in California. In those cases, it’s impossible for gun owners to substitute a trip to the gun store by shopping online. Even if they find a gun that they want to purchase by browsing a store’s website, actually buying the firearm requires an in-person trip to the store to fill out the required paperwork and go through the NICS check. California gun buyers must then return to the store ten days later in order to pick up the firearm that they’ve purchased. There is simply no legal way for the average California resident to legally acquire a firearm without making a couple of trips to a gun store, so ordering gun stores closed goes beyond a mere regulation of the right to keep and bear arms. It absolutely infringes on the rights of Californians hoping to keep and bear arms.”
I find AG Becerra’s comments rather disingenuous. He says that “no one is entitled to endanger the life of someone else simply so that he [or she] can extend the exercise of his or her religion beyond the means that would not start to imperil the health and life of another person.” Sooo, I must ask the AG: why does he support murdering a preborn child right up to birth? We all know, and it is proven science, that there is a heartbeat at 18 days, ergo the term “Heartbeat Bill,” which maniacal leftists like Becerra reject. We always hear leftists stating that constitutional conservatives do not embrace, believe in, and always refute science. Well, why is it that leftists reject science when it comes to contradicting their ideological agenda? Yeah, hypocrites.
Why is it that in a state like California, which, by the way, is doling out $125 million of taxpayer funds for economic stimulus to illegal immigrants, they have decided that a gun store is not essential? Now, a marijuana store is somehow essential. But churches and gun stores, both related to our First and Second Amendment rights are deemed not essential. Go and try to close a Planned Parenthood clinic in California, as was done here in Texas, and see what happens.
This COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the left in America doesn’t give a doggone about real individual rights, liberties. What they want is to use any crisis as a means to advance their agenda, and yes, even at the expense of millions of Americans finding themselves unemployed and not able to afford gourmet ice cream like Marie Antoinette Pelosi.
I am sure AG Becerra is just hoping that many of these small business owners of gun stores will not be able to reopen. I would assert that is one of the underlying reasons why the left wants to keep this economic lockdown going, especially where they have unilaterally decided what is an essential business, operation. In Washington state, one of the original ground zero locations for COVID-19, they are still issuing needles to drug addicts…but gun stores are closed?
This is why more folks are fleeing California, and these other tyrannically run leftist states. Many are realizing that they do not want to live this way. Sadly, as is the case in Texas, there are those moving into the Lone Star State due to relocation of their corporation, business, and other reasons…and they bring along the same failed values, tendencies, and ideologies.
Folks, just remember, as we wrote about, Sunday was the 245th remembrance of the beginning of the fight for American independence. It all started with a “shot heard ’round the world” from a small field called Lexington Green. America was begun because we refused to be disarmed, made into subjects. Here we are 245 years later, with the same doggone battle being waged.
Today we are fighting against two seemingly powerful entities, one we cannot see, COVID-19, the other is clearly visible, progressive socialism. What we must embrace, just as those men did at Lexington Green and Concord Bridge, is that the most powerful force in the world is the human desire for freedom, liberty. Let’s honor the sacrifices of those men of 245 years ago who made a stand to give us this great nation. Fight for your rights, and do not let the left redefine them to fit their vision.
This column was originally published at The Old School Patriot.
The views expressed in CCNS member articles are not necessarily the views or positions of the entire CCNS. They are the views of the authors, who are members of the CCNS.
