Congressman Dan Lungren Never Heard of the 14th Amendment

14th Amendment

The Sacramento Bee is angry at some members of the California Congressional delegation for wrong-think, in embracing HR 822. They want to get them back into right-think:

 Central Valley representatives who have made the wrong-headed decision to embrace the measure include Democrat Dennis Cardoza of Merced and Republicans Wally Herger of the Chico area, Tom McClintock of Elk Grove, Jeff Denham of Atwater, Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield and Devin Nunes, who represents Tulare and Fresno counties.

They hold up Rep. Dan Lungren, who was the only Republican committee member to vote against the measure, as the poster boy of right-thinking, and proof that Republicans can stand up to the wrong-think of the NRA.

“I believe in the Second Amendment. I also believe in the 10th Amendment,” Lungren, a former California attorney general, said after casting his no vote.

In Lungren’s view, California’s law governing concealed weapons may be too restrictive. But he also said: “That is part of the reality of dealing with what some people call federation and others call states’ rights.” States have rights.

No, Congressmen, states do not have rights. People have rights. States have powers which are delegated to it by the people, who in turn delegate certain enumerated powers to the federal government (at least in theory). One of those enumerated powers is the power to pass laws to protect the civil rights of Americans. Americans, through our constitutional system, have not delegated our right to bear arms to Government, but unique among nations, we have retained it for ourselves. California has no more power to restrict this right than Colorado, Alaska, or New York, and enforcement of this right against the states is very much part of our federal system.

I also believe in the 2nd and 10th Amendments, Congressman, and passionately so. But I also believe in the 14th Amendment with equal passion.

Related posts (automatically generated):

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  3. It’s a Matter of the 14th Amendment

3 thoughts on “Congressman Dan Lungren Never Heard of the 14th Amendment”

  1. newspeak
    Rep. Lungren has a doubleplus good bellyfeel of the living Constitution. Correct malreport speedwise to avoid crimethink.
    /newspeak

    I would dearly love to see Congress meet its obligation to preserve and defend the Constitution by enforcing the Second and Fourteenth Amendment guarantees with appropriate legislation.

  2. Interesting how these politicians suddenly start to quote other amendments as if they supercede the 2a, rather than working in conjunction with it. They will think up any excuse to further erode gun rights, without thinking of the irony. This would be equivalent of a progunner calling for a ban on criticizing Glock or Ruger as anti-second amendment speech.

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