As published in the Kinston Free Press 6/23/2016

By John Nix / Guest Columnist

“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.” So reads the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. Yet, the right to protect oneself is a provision from God, not man. Hence, no government or individual can take that away. In every presidential election cycle “the right to bear arms” becomes a talking point. The massacre in Orlando last week at a gay nightclub carried out by a Muslim extremist is an example of using a tragedy to further a political agenda. Like they say, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” No sooner than the shots rang out, the progressive left was calling for new bans on weaponry. Since then, the Senate has considered four new bills in an attempt to change accessibility to weapons. All four failed to reach the floor for a full vote.

Alternate sexual lifestyles and gender preferences have dominated the news lately with North Carolina kicking off a national gender debate surrounding bathroom laws. Celebrities and corporations piled on the boycott wagon threatening to pack their bags or not perform unless House Bill 2 was dropped. HB2 upholds the common sense morality that men use the men’s restroom and women likewise. Then the federal government threatened to snatch education funding unless HB2 was rescinded. The governor and legislature have vowed to stand their moral high ground and filed suit with the feds filing their own. So what does this have to do with Second Amendment rights?
The media narrative would have us all believing that HB2 creates some sort of crisis for the LGBT population, which only makes up about .03 percent of the population or 3 in 1,000. The convenient timing of this manufactured crisis in a presidential year is designed to draw our attention away from more important matters. This administration’s refusal to protect our borders, irresponsibly importing Syrian refugees with no effective background checks, a bloviated unemployment rate with record numbers out of work and on taxpayer funded subsidies, and the refusal by the president and staff to use the words “radical Islam” is enough reason for this administration to shift the focus.

On Monday, the 911 transcript from the Orlando crisis was released with the word “God” replacing “Allah” throughout. Omar Mateen’s admission of his allegiance to ISIS was omitted. Later the same day this was redacted to reveal the true transcript. This was clearly an act of radical Islamic terror. The president cannot hide the truth from the American people any longer. Mateen planned this attack to serve the ISIS agenda. Yet the president and his staff refuse to even call it a terror attack. Instead he uses the bully pulpit to preach gun control preying on fear and ignorance of the electorate. Obama intends to convince you that the police and military are the only ones that should have guns, that the government is your friend and will protect you. He uses the money hungry media to push his propaganda.

An awful thing happened in Orlando. A radical Islamic terrorist killed 49 people in a gay nightclub with a gun. The liberal mind sees this as due cause for total eradication of private gun ownership. For the educated Constitutional conservative this incident only further clarifies why we need to protect our Second Amendment rights now more than ever. Conspiracy theories say this was all orchestrated by this administration to further their attack on the Second Amendment. I won’t go there, but you’ve got to be sleep walking not to connect a few dots.

The Democrat machine continues to attack our right to bear arms and will continue to do so through the appointment of liberal federal judges. We know guns aren’t the problem. Just compare the 1.1 million babies per year slaughtered through abortion to the 11,200 per year homicidal gun deaths. Now try to convince me progressive Democrats efforts to quell our gun rights has anything to do with the sanctity of human life. They use fear as a propaganda tool to control the “sheeple”. The Second Amendment was ratified to protect us from a rogue government. Stay informed, protect your Constitutional rights and your family. Remember, you have an innate right to protect yourself and don’t need permission from a bloviated self-serving government to do so.

The opinions of the guest columnist are not necessarily those of The Free Press.

John Nix is the co-founder and partner at Matrix East, PLLC. He’s also the president of the CSS Neuse Foundation and the lead plaintiff in the Nix, et al v. Eric Holder case, for the reversal of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.