Time’s up: Fish or Cut Bait

You do know Election Day 2020 — November 3 — is just over the horizon, right?

As my dad, and probably yours, used to say, “it’s time to fish or cut bait.”

There is much more at stake than just the Congress, the White House, your state legislatures, and local city and county offices; all elections for which everyone who owns a gun should already have studied up.

We’re talking about the United States Supreme Court and the lower federal courts, including federal district courts and Courts of Appeal. They are also essentially on the table. No, none of these learned men and women on the bench run for election. They are appointed for life, and this may be the most important reason of all for you to make sure you vote in November.
The looming battle will determine the direction of the country and it is the fight for your way of life.

Winner Take All

This one is for all the marbles. The proof is found in the Commonwealth of Virginia, which we discussed back a few months ago. Too many Virginia gun owners went lazy last year and allowed anti-gunners to seize the General Assembly for the first time in 20 years. Those gun grabbers made the most of it, with 2A-hostile Gov. Ralph Northam sitting in his office, eager to ink every gun control measure hitting his desk.

Virginia was child’s play if Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and their colleagues wind up in full majority on Capitol Hill. Anybody who doesn’t understand this has a serious case of wishful thinking. Moreover, if the “Party of Gun Confiscation” (a label they earned when nobody argued with Beto O’Rourke about taking your AR-15s and AK-47s, remember?) captures the Oval Office, gun owners are in serious trouble.

During his first three years in office, President Donald Trump filled some 200 federal court vacancies, including two spots on the Supreme Court. Those are conservative judges and justices, and with a slew of Second Amendment cases hanging in the balance, those appointments will be critical for the next 25 to 50 years.

Imagine if Trump has the opportunity to fill one or two more high court vacancies with people who understand the Second Amendment means what it says, and isn’t just an embarrassing bastard child in the Bill of Rights. He would need a Senate controlled by his own party to confirm those nominations.

When Joe Biden told a Michigan auto factory worker earlier this year he was “full of s—” for challenging the former vice president on his gun control record, it sent a signal across the country “Shotgun Joe” is all mouth when he claims to “support the Second Amendment.”

The Court Is The Prize

Some people on Capitol Hill may think they run things, but we were all taught in high school there are three separate but equal branches of government: the Executive, Legislative and Judicial.

Congress makes the laws but it’s up to the courts to determine whether they pass the constitutional smell test. The Supreme Court is the highest authority, which is why it is critical for gun owners to have Second Amendment-friendly justices and judges.

This column is called “2A Defense.” There are many ways to defend the right to keep and bear arms and among the most important is to protect the integrity and balance of the courts. The most effective way to guarantee the courts aren’t turned into a legislative extension of an anti-gun Congress is to make sure gun prohibitionists aren’t elected so they can put more anti-gun-rights jurists in federal court positions.

One reason Hillary Clinton didn’t win four years ago was because gun owners turned out in good numbers in key states, preventing her from loading the courts with anti-Second Amendment judges.

Keep in perspective you’re not voting just to protect your constitutional rights but the rights of your children and their children, even if they haven’t been born. We all want our descendants to inherit a country worth all of the sacrifices of our fathers and grandfathers, and people we never knew, to make it a place so many want to sneak into rather than escape out of.

Let this be your personal legacy to generations yet to come. When circumstances called for it, you stepped up to the plate and made it count. You don’t want to wake up November 4 knowing you might have made a difference but you didn’t bother.
Growing up and living in this country is a gift. Earn it.

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