As a Leon County Commissioner, I am often asked my position on gun control. The easy answer I’m often tempted to give is that, as a County Commissioner, I have no real role in the regulation of gun ownership or the trade in weapons and ammunition in Leon County.

However, I do have an opinion on the issue, and I’ve never been one to rely on easy answers. So tonight I’m going to go out on a limb, tell you what I really think about gun control, and let you decide for yourselves what you think about it.

Some people mistakenly believe that our rights as Americans come from the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution is a sublimely ingenious document that I believe to be divinely inspired. But people who think our rights are granted to us by the Constitution don’t understand the philosophy of the original framers of that document. Our rights do not come from the Constitution. The framers believed, Jefferson and the others, that the rights of man come not governments, but from God. The intent of the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution then, was not to create rights, but to recognize a limited number of them and craft assurances that the government would not impinge on these limited, enumerated rights.

However, just because some of our God-given rights are listed in the Constitution doesn’t mean we don’t have other rights, which don’t appear on the list. The rights of man are infinite in number. No document then, no matter how ambitious or comprehensive, can list them all -- because no matter how many of our rights we write down on paper, there are always more rights to which we are entitled by virtue of our birth .

Now, some folks say that the Second Amendment is the one that guarantees our right to keep and bear arms. You probably won’t love me for saying this, but I do not believe the Second Amendment protects individual gun ownership, except in the context of a well-regulated militia. Nevertheless, our rights come from God, not the Constitution, right? So despite the qualifying language of the Second Amendment with regard to “a well regulated militia”, I believe that we as human beings have a right to keep and bear arms. Further, as Americans, I believe that individual gun ownership is a cultural tradition and birthright in America which predates the founding of the United States, and should be considered a natural right of all individual, law-abiding citizens.

I also believe that we ARE our government. I therefore believe that we have the right as citizens to make laws that protect the public and the innocent from violence and coercion. Government can and should regulate responsible gun ownership by fully implementing and enforcing existing gun laws, by strictly prohibiting the possession of firearms by convicted felons and the mentally ill, and should prohibit commerce in certain types of firearms which exceed reasonable standards of sportsmanship, personal and home defense, and cultural tradition.

Now, that’s just my opinion as a citizen. As I said earlier, as a County Commissioner I have little role in the regulation of firearms. Some people may say, that for someone who has no responsibility in this area, I’ve put way too much thought into this issue. Maybe so. But I get the question often, and I’ve thought about it a lot. I would say that as citizens of the United States, it is ALL of our responsibility to think these matters through, to talk about them honestly, and to express our opinions without fear. That is another one of our God-given rights.
I hope I’ve given you a fair representation of my thoughts on the issue tonight, I hope I’ve given you something to think about, and I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have.