Where's the Biblical Citation for the "God-Given Right" to Brandish Guns?

During last night's opening session of the Trump Crime Family Reunion that is officially known as the Republican National Convention, the McCloskeys of St. Louis, Missouri, spoke about their "God-given right" to brandish firearms at Black Lives Matter protestors outside their home.

This is not the first time that this outlandish claim has been addressed on this blog. Last September I asked about Press Secretary (#2 of 4) Sarah Huckabee Sanders' tweet stating that "we have guns because it's our God-given right enshrined in the Constitution." And back in June 2012, in a discussion of a Texas Republican Party Platform with a number of very strange planks, I also asked about the origins of a claim that Texans had a right to own guns and "their God-given right to carry that firearm" (incidentally, when you see how much bizarre crap the Texas GOP was able to cram into its platform, it was probably good that the national party punted on the process at the 2020 RNC). 

So, to get to the point, there's still an open question. Where in the Bible is this "God-given right" enunciated? I was able to find a September 2019 article in Politico from National Review editor Rich Lowry titled "Yes, Gun Ownership Is a God-Given Right" that cites John Locke and Noah Webster and the Declaration of Independence, but no sources dating back to the Torah, Koran, or Bible. Maybe we have to get America's leading biblical scholar, the Bible-verse-tweeting @MarcoRubio, involved to find the answer to this nagging question. If he can't find the biblical basis, then maybe Republicans should stop repeating this lie.

God-Given Guns?

A couple of days ago, the most recent ex-Minister of Information for the Trump Administration, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, tweeted that "Democrats say we have guns in America because of 'corruption'. No, we have guns because it’s our God-given right enshrined in the Constitution."

Being the smart aleck that I am, I replied with "It seems sacrilegious (as well as ridiculous) to blame modern America's firearms plague on a mythical 'God-given right' to bear arms." and "But if the right to bear arms (as part of a militia) in the Constitution is 'God-given,' then so is the #emoluments clause." Checking back a couple of days later, I was heartened to see that my replies acquired more than a few likes and retweets, and that there were over 25,000 other replies to her original tweet, most of which were amazed and surprised at her invocation of The Almighty in her defense of assault weapons.

I wasn't surprised. This wasn't the first time I heard this claim about a God-given right to bear arms. It seems to be an article of faith among a certain subculture of Americans. Back in 2012, I quoted at length from the document of a right-wing extremist group, The Platform Committee of the Republican Party of Texas. Not only did they talk about the "God-given right" to open carry your firearm on page 14 of their 2012 platform, but that was one of their less controversial planks. Abolishing Social Security and Income Tax; withdrawal from the UN, IMF, WTO, and World Bank; anti-homosexuality and pro-confederate-monument planks; repealing the Endangered Species and Voting Rights Acts; and much more that makes Donald Trump look like a flaming moderate on the GOP scale of fucknuttery were included. You can read more excerpts here, or the full document here. We sometimes forget in these days of Trump's constant headline-grabbing distractions, that the foundations of know-nothingism run deep in the GOP and USA. The nightmare didn't begin in November 8, 2016.

(Also -- having an open mind -- if anyone can cite the Bible verse in which God gives people -- especially Americans -- the divine right to carry guns, I'm willing to listen.)

Until today, this is what I thought about when I heard the name "San Bernardino"

From Frank Zappa and the Mothers' 1975 One Size Fits All album, this live version 'San Ber'dino' is from London in 1978:

"Oh Bobby, I'm sorry you got a head like a potato."

A Banner Day in the History of America's Gun Culture

A DESPERATE STREET-FIGHT.
-----------

Marshal Virgil Earp, Morgan and Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday Meet the Cowboys--Three Men Killed and Two Wounded, One Seriously--Origin of the Trouble and its Tragical Termination.
-----------
[Tombstone Nugget, Oct. 27.]

The 26th of October will always be marked as one of the crimson days in the annals of Tombstone, a day when blood flowed as water, and human life was held as a shuttlecock, a day always to be remembered as witnessing the bloodiest and deadliest street fight that has ever occurred in this place, or probably in the Territory. ...

You can read the continuation of the detailed description of the event from 134 years ago that has come to be quaintly marketed as "The Gunfight At The OK Corral" in the October 30, 1881 issue of the Arizona Weekly Citizen (click here and start at the top of column 7). Three dead and two wounded? That might not even make the news in 2015, and if it did it would be a minor mass shooting (though the NRA would probably object to the use of "mass" as prejudical when used as a descriptive adjective for such an everyday American event).

It will be hard to top Ben Carson...

... for the most offensive and idiotic statement of this offensive and idiotic campaign season:

 “I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away.” 

--Dr. Benjamin Solomon "Ben" Carson, Sr., October 6, 2015

But how many bodies with bullet holes are necessary to protect our holy God-Given Second Amendment?

From the mouths of babes...

South Park explains in 56 seconds why Cecil-the-Lion's murderer and other big game hunters are more likely to support (and to be) Republicans than Democrats.

What a loss the loss of Jon Stewart's nightly voice is going to be...

On Tuesday night Jon was shoot-milk-out-your-nose-because-you're-laughing-so-explosively funny when Fuckface von Clownstick joined the Presidential race, but on Thursday night he gave us this, the most succinct and truthful statement about the Charleston racial terrorism of the night before, and our predictable and insufficient response to it.

The Daily Show
Daily Show Full Episodes,  More Daily Show Videos,  Comedy Central Full Episodes

I'm going to miss him and I no longer even get Comedy Central on my television; I just watch (and share) these clips.

Lars Andersen may have just made it necessary to redo every historical or fantasy movie involving bows and arrows...

As an archer myself (on a level nothing like this), I have never even imagined something like this was possible:



And this video of one archer from Denmark has the fringe benefit of making anyone who uses a gun (with whatever level of cold-blooded expertise) look like a coward and untalented tool.

I'm done watching the news for a little while...

Each HYSTERICAL EBOLA story should have this disclaimer: As an American you are more than 10,000 times more likely to be killed by a bullet.

— TrueBlue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) October 13, 2014

"Stand your Ground" by Boycotting Florida

This story came to my attention from the ALWAYS interesting Shakespeare's Sister, with her blog entry "The Land of the Freaks and the Home of the Deranged". The long and short of it is that the Florida legislature has just made it easier to inflict your own brand of good old-fashioned vigilante capital punishment (please don't call it lynching) on the streets of The Sunshine State®.

The "Stand Your Ground" act is extending the "Castle Doctrine" that made it easier to kill baddies in your home, place of business, or car. Now the legislature (94-20 in the House / 39-0 in the Senate) is removing the last impediments to killing wherever you feel threatened.

Outside the home, however, courts have ruled that most victims must at least attempt to escape before using deadly force, a provision gun advocates say puts victims at greater risk. The proposal removes that requirement if a person has a reasonable fear of death or great bodily harm.
Critics say the measure could lead to racially motivated killings and promote deadly escalations of arguments.
"All this bill will do is sell more guns and possibly turn Florida into the OK Corral," said Democratic state Rep. Irv Slosberg of Boca Raton.

The NRA of course is crowing over at their website about this great victory. Next up, arming American teachers with weapons that have a little more killing power than the traditional paddle. And if a kid comes to school wearing a trench coat . . .

Shakespeare's Sister asked" Who in his right mind prefers to go on the offensive and take someone else’s life on the chance that the other person means to take his?" While her "right mind" proviso may have excused him from competition, the obvious answer is George Dobeliou Bush (and his friends -- I passed a quote from Condi somewhere today about the danger of "under-reacting" to insufficient intelligence). Killing pre-emptively is a national foreign policy that will now be extended domestically -- with the inevitable stroke of Dubya's little brother's pen -- to the streets of Miami, Orlando, and The Magic Kingdom.

And while Jeb and the other "Culture of Lifers" thought it was wrong to kill Terri Schiavo by removing her feeding tube, I guess it would have been OK to shoot her if you mistook an involuntary twitch for a threat. After all, no one is ever held responsible for bad intelligence in today's modern America.

Let's stand OUR ground. Spread the word about this latest legislative atrocity in your own way, and please think twice before planning a vacation in Florida.

Is there an Activist Judge in the house?
True Blue Liberal