By Tom Reynolds S.C.O.P.E. Treasurer and Director 

“…[T]hey know not what they do” was uttered two thousand years ago and it referred to a political establishment that did not understand the consequences of their actions. Unfortunately, most of America’s political establishment has no idea about the consequences of their current actions.

Every four years our President can change and many in the media will hypocritically mention how important – and somewhat rare- it is for a country to have a peaceful transition in leadership. We pride ourselves on following the Constitution and not being a “Banana Republic”. Unfortunately the media seems intent on making us into that “Banana Republic”.

Through the two hundred and twenty nine years of our nation’s history, only one serious attempt was made to overthrow the Constitution: it was called the Civil War and 620,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians died in it. Now, seven score and thirteen years after the Civil war ended, we face another attempt to overthrow the government. The Washington DC establishment wants to do away with the people’s right to elect our leader, the President of the United States, and they are working tirelessly to bring that about. Most of the political establishment are willing to tear down the Constitution that they swore an oath to uphold in what they believe will be a bloodless coup d'état. They probably anticipate that Americans will sit quietly and go along with it.

Our founding fathers warned about a too powerful government and they set up constitutional barriers to prevent that. But those barriers started falling in the twentieth century and government bureaucrats (the Department of Justice and the I.R.S. for example, but not exclusively) now act with impunity to use their bureaucratic powers against American citizens, which now includes using them against the President of the United States. The founding fathers also set up another Constitutional barrier to government overreach; the Second Amendment.

What if the political elite succeeded? What if they overthrow the duly elected leader of the country, the person that “We the people” voted into office? What are the unintended consequences of this coup that most – but not all - of the left do not foresee?

Without question, that would further empower them to overthrow any future Presidents who the Washington D.C. political establishment doesn’t like.

There are an estimated 80 million gun owners with 250 million guns in the United States. What if only ten percent of them are unwilling to go along with the loss of their constitutional right to elect their president? That’s 8 million gun owners with 25 million guns! Most revolutions start with considerably less.

Does the political establishment believe the military and police will side with them? If they read history they would know that, during the Civil War, the great generals of the South had been Union officers before the war began.

I inferred that most, “…know not what they do” and that most do not understand the unintended consequences of their actions. However, I believe there are some who not only understand the consequences of a coup, the confusion that would follow and the possibility of a second Civil War but they embrace it. Since they want to, “Fundamentally change the United States”, there is nothing like total destruction to bring about fundamental change.

I write this not as a threat but as a warning that the primary reason that guns are protected by the Second Amendment is to protect us from tyranny, both foreign and domestic. This would explain why so many in the political establishment would like to see the Second Amendment repealed.

We have seen our Constitution and the vision of our founding fathers greatly eroded in the past century. I truly believe most of the far left have never given a thought to the unintended consequences that I highlighted. They are treading on very dangerous grounds. The Constitution and the vision of our founding fathers has been our strength for over two centuries and led our nation to a pinnacle of success unmatched in history. But our position is fragile and our country must regain its constitutional common sense.

There was a pre-political correctness saying, “I may disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it”. Perhaps the Washington D.C. establishment should take heed that while it may disagree with the President, he was duly elected under the Constitution.