“The laws that forbid the carrying of arms … disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.” – Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson’s quote describes the argument in favor of a personal right to bear arms for self-defense. The Supreme Court has agreed the Second Amendment protects such a right in Heller v. District of Columbia and McDonald v. Chicago.
There is an additional, seldom discussed, aspect to the Second Amendment, the Right to Revolution in the event a government becomes tyrannical. The Declaration of Independence describes this right:
“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends,[1] it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…”
An Author’s Vision of A Second American Revolution
Gary Hansen’s book, The Second Revolution, is an apocalyptic tale about a president who tramples upon the Constitution generally and the Second Amendment in particular. It’s Hansen’s vision of what might happen with such a scenario. The Right to Revolution found in the Declaration of Independence gets life in the book when a rogue president misuses executive authority to turn the American government oppressive.
The Second Revolution, in the form of an action packed novel, describes:
The use of weapons for self defense
The trials of involved with buying your first gun
The danger of accumulated executive power that can act faster than the established checks and balances designed to control such power can react
The potential of corrupt politicians and a rogue president to circumvent the Constitution via executive order to confiscate private firearms
How house to house government confiscation of privately held weapons might go down if it ever happened
A revolution to throw out a rouge president when other alternatives have failed or the abuse of power presents an immediate danger to America.
Gary Hansen’s The Second Revolution: Entertainment with a Serious Message
Author Gary Hansen
The Second Revolution presents these serious matters in an entertaining and suspenseful fashion. The stories characters are quickly developed and believable. The key protagonists, Jake, who buys his first gun after a break-in at his home, his new girlfriend Monica and her minister father Clive become quickly involved in a national crisis.
An unelected president, who took office on his predecessor’s death, moves quickly to “transform America”. This transformation seeks a complete overhaul of the American economy. Opponents of the president’s efforts in congress and the media are killed or suffer fatal “accidents”. Even as the president is suspect in these deaths, he issues an executive order to confiscate all handguns in the country.
The Second Revolution is a cautionary tale that comes from Hansen having grown up in a small town in Utah and then witnessing the incremental loss of American freedoms while living twenty years in California. While The Second Revolution is a work of fiction, the reality of centralized of power in the federal government and the executive branch do present dangers that will give the thoughtful reader pause.
Conversation with Gary Hansen on Constitutionally Speaking
For more on The Second Revolution and author Gary Hansen’s thoughts on the Second Amendment, listen to the discussion on Constitutionally Speaking.
https://soundcloud.com/david-shestokas/constitutionally-speaking-2nd
[1]The ends Jefferson outlines are the preservation of the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
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