Resolutions to be Presented to the Pitt County GOP: Third Installment | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Our long time contributor, Diane Rufino, has written a number of thought provoking resolutions to be submitted to the Pitt County Republican Convention, and I thought, similarly, they might be 'food for thought' for our readership as well.

    This installment is the third in a series of resolutions painstakingly considered, and well articulated by Diane.

Resolutions Protecting Gun Rights (second Amendment) and Privacy (fourth Amendment; No NSA Spying !!)

    As the Resolutions Chair for the Pitt County GOP, I wrote a series of resolutions that I plan to present at the upcoming 2014 Pitt County GOP Convention, on March 8. These resolutions include the following:

    1. A Resolution to Oppose the Affordable Care Act as an Abuse of Federal Power

    2. A Resolution to Oppose the Affordable Care Act as a Violation of the 13th Amendment

    3. A Resolution to Oppose Common Core

    4. A Resolution to Protect the Second Amendment

    5. A Resolution Denouncing the NSA as Violating the Fourth Amendment

    6. A Resolution to Respect & Protect the Life of the Unborn

    7. A Resolution Demanding Accountability Regarding the Deaths of Americans in Benghazi

    In the previous posting, I shared the resolutions I drafted to address the many constitutional violations presented by the Affordable Care Act. In this posting, I want to share the Resolution I drafted to protect our gun rights under the Second Amendment and the Resolution I wrote to denounce the National Security Agency (NSA) for its blatant violation of our privacy rights (the right to be secure in our person, houses, papers, and effects, under the Fourth Amendment) in its massive and audacious domestic surveillance program.

A Resolution to Protect the Second Amendment

    Whereas, upon taking office, state and local elected representatives, police and sheriff departments, and other local civil servants must solemnly swear to support the Constitution of the United States and promise to be "faithful and bear true allegiance to the State of North Carolina.."

    Whereas, the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides: "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"; and

    Whereas, each one of the first ten amendments (known as the Bill of Rights) holds a particularly significant LIMITATION on the function of the federal government, as proclaimed in its Preamble: "The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire to add further declaratory and restrictive clauses in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, to extend public confidence in the Government, and to best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.";

    Whereas, the Second Amendment is meant to be a check on the government by the People and not a check on the people by the government; and

    Whereas, Article I, Section 30 of the Constitution of the State of North Carolina provides: "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; and, as standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they shall not be maintained, and the military shall be kept under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power. Nothing herein shall justify the practice of carrying concealed weapons, or prevent the General Assembly from enacting penal statutes against that practice"; and

    Whereas, the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not establish the right to keep and bear arms but merely recognizes it and protects it from government regulation. Indeed, none of the provisions of the Constitution establish any "natural" rights. They recognize such rights. These rights, as proclaimed "to a candid world" in the Declaration of Independence, are "self-evident." And therefore, any action by a government body that attempts to repeal or burden these provisions would not end such rights; and

    Whereas, the Second Amendment was proposed by the States, acting as agents for the People, in order to secure constitutional protection and assurance that the federal government would not interfere with their right to protect themselves. So strongly did the People feel about such assurances that the Constitution would not have otherwise been ratified by the States. One such comment at the time of the state ratifying conventions was made by Tench Coxe, a noted federalist and friend of James Madison, who wrote: "Their swords, and every other terrible instrument of the soldier, are the birth right of an American... the unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or the state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people."

    Whereas, the Second Amendment articulates the natural right of self-defense, from persons with evil intent, and even from one's own government, if that need should ever arise; and

    Whereas, the Second Amendment also recognizes the right, power, and duty of able-bodied persons (originally males, but now females also) to organize into militias and defend the state; and

    Whereas, the United States Supreme Court in recent months has twice upheld the Second Amendment as applying to individuals' right to keep and bear arms [District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and McDonald v. Chicago (2010)]; and

    Whereas, Article V of the US Constitution outlines the ONLY avenue to alter the meaning and intent of the Constitution and that is through the rigorous requirements of the amendment process; and

    Whereas, all elected officials and public servants in the state of North Carolina are required to take an oath before executing the duties of their office, and this solemn oath demands that each official and servant support and uphold/maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States, and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina; and

    Whereas, esteemed Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, who presided on the bench during the very early years of our nation's birth, offered this opinion: Any state officer or civil servant, particularly those with enforcement authority, who violates his or her oath will "be utterly worthless for...the protection of rights; for the happiness, or good order, or safety of the people."

    Whereas, recently the federal government has shown its intent to use the current climate of school-centered violence to propose legislation, regulations, qualifications, and actions which would have the effect of infringing on the right of law-abiding Americans to keep and bear arms; and

    Whereas, the reasons given in support of such infringements as gun registration, banning certain kinds of weapons and accessories, requiring extreme background checks, restricting the bearing of arms such as excessive restrictions on concealed carry and possibly other restrictions, have not been shown by the substantial weight of scientific evidence to have been effective in accomplishing the stated objectives of such restrictions as compelling necessities for government action to protect the public safety; and

    The Pitt County GOP takes particular notice of the "social entrapment" that the progressive element of the federal government has been engaging in for many years in order to disarm Americans of their rights to govern themselves, to express their religious beliefs (especially when they are the same ones on which our nation was founded), and to defend themselves. For years the federal government has taken God out of the public square, taken God and morality of our schools, proclaimed that it "has no business" legislating, allowed women to dispose of their unborn babies out of mere inconvenience, protested for the rights of serial killers, protected extreme violence as free expression (so our kids can overdose on video games), and ushered in a new era of social reform that fights the family unit at every turn and turns a blind eye to the mal-adapted children of broken homes and irresponsible parents, and then has the audacity to argue that people aren't "good enough" to be trusted with the right to own and bear arms.

    THEREFORE, LET IT BE RESOLVED that the Pitt County GOP fully supports a full and expansive interpretation of the Second Amendment. The right to protect oneself is a natural right and not one that is defined or limited by the federal government. As John Adams wrote, "You have Rights antecedent to all earthly governments: Rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; Rights, derived from the Great Legislator of the universe." And as Benjamin Franklin once said: "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

    Let it Be Further Resolved that the Pitt County GOP calls upon our local and state legislators and elected officials to join with us in the affirmation of the rights of North Carolina citizens under the 2nd Amendment.

    Be it Further Resolved that the Pitt County GOP takes the position that all federal acts, laws, executive orders, agency orders, and rules or regulations of all kinds with the purpose, intent, or effect of confiscating any firearm, banning any firearm, limiting the size of a magazine for any firearm, imposing any limit on the ammunition that may be purchased for any firearm, taxing any firearm or ammunition therefore, or requiring the registration of any firearm or ammunition therefore, infringes upon North Carolinans' right to bear arms in direct violation of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and therefore, any such law is not made in pursuance of the Constitution, is not authorized by the Constitution, and thus, is not the supreme law of the land, and consequently, is invalid in the State of North Carolina and shall be further considered null and void.

    Be it Further Resolved that the Pitt County GOP takes the position that all officials, local and state, should refuse to support and endorse any policy of the federal government that serves to erode the spirit and intent of the Second Amendment. Any endorsement of such policy shall amount to a clear and palpable violation of his or her oath of office, as well as a negligent comprehension of the notion that we are a "nation of laws, based on the US Constitution."

    Be it Further Resolved that the Pitt County takes the position that all officials and agencies of Pitt County, and indeed, all officials and agencies of the state of North Carolina, should refuse requests and directives by federal agencies acting under unconstitutional powers (enumerated above) that would infringe upon our residents' second, fourth, ninth, and tenth amendment rights, or other inalienable rights not here explicitly enumerated, and no local or state resource shall be used to assist in the implementation of any such unconstitutional federal policy, directive, law, or executive order.

Resolution Denouncing the National Security Agency's (NSA) Unconstitutional Surveillance Program and Confiscation of Personal Correspondence

    Whereas, the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."; and

    Whereas, Article I, Sect. 21 ("General Warrant") of the constitution of the state of North Carolina provides: "General warrants, whereby any officer or other person may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of the act committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, whose offense is not particularly described and supported by evidence, are dangerous to liberty and shall not be granted."

    Whereas, these provisions, both federal and state, are grounded in the right of an individual to "retreat into his home" and thereby be free from government intrusion. A man's home should be his castle.

    Whereas, these provisions recognize that citizens have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their person, their home, their papers, their computers, etc so that the government cannot detain a person without probable cause nor seize his or her personal effects to examine them or to find any instance of wrongdoing after the fact. In other words, a person has the reasonable expectation to enjoy his or her privacy without the feeling that someone or government is watching over him. This is the very essence of freedom.

    Whereas, each one of the first ten amendments (known as the Bill of Rights) holds a particularly significant LIMITATION on the function of the federal government, as proclaimed in its Preamble: "The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire to add further declaratory and restrictive clauses in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, to extend public confidence in the Government, and to best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.";

    Whereas, the Fourth Amendment, as is every other amendment comprising the Bill of Rights, is meant to be a check on the government by the People and not a check on the people by the government; and

    Whereas, the test for the Fourth Amendment is "reasonableness," and it would seem that an amendment that protects the People should have that term defined by the People (and not the federal government). The people, therefore, must be heard.

    Whereas, the secret surveillance program called PRISM targets, among other things, the communications of U.S. citizens on a vast scale and monitors searching habits of virtually every American on the internet; and

    Whereas, This dragnet program is, as far as we know, the largest surveillance effort ever launched by a democratic government against its own citizens, consisting of the mass acquisition of Americans' call details encompassing all wireless and landline subscribers of the country's three largest phone companies; and

    Whereas, every time an American citizen makes a phone call, the NSA gets a record of the location, the number called, the time of the call and the length of the conversation; all of which are an invasion into the personal lives of American citizens that violates the protections of the Fourth Amendment; and

    Whereas, the NSA monitors the phone records of billions of Americans each month and has already confiscated millions of such records; and

    Whereas, unwarranted government surveillance is an intrusion on basic human rights that threatens the very foundations of a democratic society; this program represents a gross infringement of the freedom of association, the exercise of free speech and expression, the right to privacy, and the pursuit of happiness; and

    Whereas, this program goes far beyond even the permissive limits set by the Patriot Act since the Patriot Act was passed as a response to the horrific events of 9/11 and classified those persons or communications which can be targeted for surveillance by the government (NSA) as those "relating to terrorism"; and

    Whereas, Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wi), an author of the Patriot Act and Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee at the time Section 215 was passed ("Access to Records and Other Items Under FISA"; aka, "the Surveillance Program) called Section 215 surveillance program "an abuse of that law," writing that, "based on the scope of the released order, both the administration and the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) court are relying on an unbounded interpretation of the act that Congress never intended."

    The Pitt County GOP denounces government policy that takes God out of schools, God out of society, morality out of the legislative process, conscience out of the bedroom, and accountability out of personal conduct, and also turns its back on border control and the infiltration of individuals that mean us and our country harm while at the same time creating safe havens and sanctuaries by embracing political correctness, and then has the audacity to infer that we're not "good enough" so that the government can spy on us all, take away our gun rights, and keep us living under the threat that at any time we are breaking one law or another;

    Therefore, let it be Resolved that  -  The Pitt County GOP acknowledges that American citizens, whom the government has pledged to protect from terrorist activities, now find themselves the victims of the very weapon designed to uproot their enemies.

    Be it Further Resolved, that the Pitt County GOP encourages Republican lawmakers to enact legislation to amend Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, the State Secrets Privilege (SSP - which is a common law privilege originating in England that of course was embraced by the Supreme Court in 1953 that allows the head of an executive department to REFUSE to produce evidence in a court case on the grounds that the evidence is secret information that would harm national security or foreign relation interests if disclosed), and the FISA Amendments Act to make it clear that blanket surveillance of the Internet activity, phone records and correspondence  -  electronic, physical, and otherwise - of any person residing in the U.S. is prohibited by an express constitutional prohibition (the Fourth Amendment) law and that violations can be reviewed in adversarial proceedings before a public court.

    Be if Further Resolved, that the Pitt County GOP encourages Republican law makers to call for a special committee to investigate, report, and reveal to the public the extent of the NSA's domestic spying and the committee should create specific recommendations for legal and regulatory reform to end unconstitutional surveillance as well as hold accountable those public officials who are found to be responsible for this unconstitutional surveillance.

    Be if Further Resolved, that the Pitt County GOP calls upon Republican lawmakers to immediately take action to halt current unconstitutional surveillance programs and provide a full public accounting of the NSA's data collection programs.

    Be it Further Resolved that the Pitt County GOP stands firm in its position that Americans should NOT have to tolerate Big Brother watching over them. The hallmark of American society is individual freedom. This country fought for their independence from England because through its laws and scheme of control, it made the exercise of their freedom nearly impossible and made their lives intolerable. We have to recognize that our current government is heading in the same direction.

    Publisher's note: Diane Rufino has her own blog, For Love of God and Country. Come and visit her. She'd love your company.