Judging Freedom - Gun Reform Legislation

Episode Date: June 6, 2022

Gun Reform Legislation Makes Progress in Senate Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy says red-flag laws and background checks are part of the package under discussion.#guns #Dems #Biden #gunrightsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, June 6, 2022. It's about 135 in the afternoon on the east coast of the United States. We hear all kinds of noises coming out of Washington, D.C. that Republicans and Democrats are working together and making progress on some sort of federal regulation of guns, if you believe that the right to keep and bear arms is a natural constitutional, is a natural right, which comes from your humanity, protected from interference by the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which is essentially what Justice Scalia wrote in the 2008 case called Heller versus the District of Columbia, then you should not be happy about any progress coming out of Washington, D.C. The only thing the government can do is tax something or regulate it. That's all they do, tax and regulate. So if they add a tax to your ability to defend yourself, that will make it more expensive. If they regulate it, that'll take away your rights or somebody else's rights.

Remember, a right is a claim that comes from your humanity, and it can't be interfered with. If it can be interfered with, then it's not a right, then it's a privilege. And once you start with allowing some interference, the camel's nose is under the tent, and soon the camel will be inside the tent, because it will allow the government to treat a right as if it were a privilege. A privilege is an opportunity the government makes available. You have a privilege to drive your car on the government roadways. If you drive too fast too many times, they'll take the privilege away. If you get into too many accidents too many times, they'll take the privilege away. They own the roadway, and they can decide if you have the privilege to drive on it. That is nowhere near a right. A right is an absolute claim against the whole world. You have the right to live.

You have the right to think as you wish, to say what you think, to publish what you say, to defend yourself. These are absolute rights. They are not privileges subject to government regulation. So whatever Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, the Democrats' lead negotiator in the Senate who in his mind believes the government should confiscate all guns, whatever nonsense he's giving the Republicans with Senator John Cornyn, a decent guy who does believe in the right to keep and bear arms, but if he's negotiating with Chris Murphy on guns, he obviously thinks that right is just a privilege rather than a right. Whatever they're saying to each other

is not going to enhance human freedom. It's going to impair human freedom. It appears that the federal government will soon grant billions of dollars to the states to operate red flag laws. Red flag laws are profoundly unconstitutional. They permit courts to take guns away, which is an interference with liberty to defend yourself and property, the ownership of the gun, on the basis of a secret allegation with no trial and no due process whatsoever. I am sickened that Republicans who once supported the right, not the privilege, the right to keep and bear arms are falling for this nonsense. But we'll see. They'll need, Murphy and company will need Chris Murphy, will need all the Democratic votes in the Senate plus 10 Republicans. I don't think he's going to get them. He thinks he will. He's a better nose counter than I am.

I'm not down there. But there was a time when the Republicans in the Senate believed in the right to keep and bear arms. Maybe they still do. We'll know soon. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.