Fort Smith Republican Denny Altus has introduced a bill which would make it legal for law-abiding citizens to openly carry a loaded firearm from one location to another. I’ve never understood why that was ever illegal - especially considering the right to keep and bear arms is in our state constitution. I don’t think the ruling class of this state has ever had much trust in the people.
For example, Craighead County Sheriff Jack Mc-Cann is on record as being mortified at the prospect that the open-carry bill might pass. All the bill does is “legalize” what is supposed to be legal anyway under both our state and federal constitutions. The sheriff took an oath to uphold these constitutions. I wish he’d re-think his position in order to keep that oath.
I see a growing gap between law-abiding citizens and a certain type of law enforcement professional, and it frightens me. The two groups ought to be each other’s greatest supporters.
It’s been that way in thepast, but the nature of the laws was different then. Not only were the laws over the people fewer in number, but they were also different in kind.
There should be such a thing as the majesty of the law. But the law’s majesty does not come from itself, but as a result of its reflection of a higher moral law that is engraved in the conscience of most every decent person. When the law no longer reflects the higher moral law, it loses its majesty.
The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. summed up the orthodox Christian view on this matter when he wrote, “How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a manmade code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.”
Our post-modern laws are less and less respected because they no longer reflect God’s moral law.
When the law retains its majesty, the enforcers of the law are also the protectors of our natural rights - including the natural right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. That gives dignity to members of the law enforcement profession. Unjust laws do the opposite. The profession of law enforcement loses its dignity and honor when its officers forsake enforcing laws which protect the natural rights of the people, and instead become enforcers of law which are at odds with those rights.
All across the country we find cities whose financial condition is so desperate that they are cutting back on police protection. Even before that, it has often been said that when seconds count, the police are only minutes away. It is no disrespect to the police to say that we should not be wholly dependent on them for our security. In these hard times that are likely to get harder, the police arelikely to be stretched thinner.
Some law enforcement personnel are sympathetic towards citizens who take personal responsibility for their own protection. Those are the kind you want. Such policemen are easy to respect, because they respect you. Those like Sheriff Mc-Cann, who get upset at the idea of citizens exercising their natural right to keep and bear arms, are the ones it is difficult to respect, because it is clear that they do not respect you, or their oaths.
Put me down as agreeing with founding father James Madison who said: “A government that does not trust its law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is itself unworthy of trust.”◊◊◊
Editor’s note: Mark Moore is the lead writer for an Internet blog on matters pertaining to Arkansas culture and government, Arkansas Watch, and on Tuesday nights is the host of an Internet-based radio program, Patriots on Watch. He can be reached through The Times at [email protected].
Opinion, Pages 4 on 01/26/2011