The End of Gun Control: 6.2 Keep Law Local
Only an armed citizenry, actively 'executing the law' in their communities, can ‘bind down’ public officials from mischief and maintain constitutional order with strict adherence to a social contract.
Thomas Jefferson, as a republican theorist, advocated the concept of ‘ward’ sized republics which operate below the county level. Wherein, political units are divided down through “subordinations” until each individual governs, as “the depository of powers” regarding their own properties and affairs, in an inviolate sphere, and “higher functionaries” are trusted with fewer powers proportionate to their propensity to become oligarchical. It is a federated system of political power maximized at the base and decreasing with each level up.
The Jeffersonian concept of republicanism saw each individual active in the daily concerns of their ward-republic, no larger than six square miles or approximately one hundred families (which allows for a company sized militia) and even involved gradually in the governance activities of those further afield polities. Essentially, every “higher” level of government in the federation should have increasingly less authority and, likewise, less revenue to support its operations.
Granted, Jefferson was a southern agrarian, and the county sized element may not readily correspond to high density geographic locations or modern terminology. Wards in the Tokyo metropolitan area, for instance, are larger than most American cities. Yet the principle remains viable at scale so long as the basic unit is no larger than approximately a hundred families and is large enough to support a militia company. This allows for sufficient able-bodied citizens to carry out the security and justice functions of a self-governing polity.
In the case of the Whiskey Rebellion both the general and state governments involved violated the subsidiarity principle of the federation and enlisted the forces of neighboring counties to invade the territories of those resisting the unconstitutional tax. One could argue that the ‘republican form of government’ promised in Article 4, Section 4 of the federal charter was destroyed in that moment and never recovered. Continued deviations from principle, distorted interpretations of constitutional authorities, and the resource hungry churn of maximizing states yielded the wretched Leviathan that imposes ‘gun control’ and every other perverse policy with relative impunity today.
More importantly, the folly of the general government’s response to the Whiskey Rebellion displayed how readily those holding public office would misemploy the militia and abuse the authorities entrusted to them. Rather than protecting the subordinate polities ‘against invasion’ rogue officials orchestrated an invasion of their own clumsy design.
This maladministration, in addition to the ongoing tendency for politicians to neglect their militia (as observed at the state level during the ratification debates) led to the unpreparedness that allowed initial defeats at the start of the War of 1812.
Consider, however, what being on the wrong side of the law does to the motivation of citizens to serve as militia. Misuse, maladministration, and general abuse make militia service not only frustrating but also demoralizing.
Garden variety bureaucratic incompetence, rampant in every military service and particularly in the National Guard, coupled with political abuse of authority, does not sit well with moral and purposeful people. The average citizen, focused on making a living and providing for their loved ones, cannot be bothered with the boondoggles typical of military and law enforcement bureaucracies, and even less so when the activity involves depriving their neighbors of their livelihoods.
This is especially applicable to collecting taxes. It takes a certain type of psychopathic, anti-social, personality to engage in coercive expropriation. This type of behavior is normally associated with criminals, and rightly so. All the major world religions teach the immorality of taking what rightfully belongs to another. The Biblical ten commandments include a specific prohibition against stealing. The Buddhist Ten Moral Precepts go so far as to affirm ‘not taking what is not offered’. The list goes on because every society depends upon boundaries of order to reduce friction and allow for social cooperation.
Well-adjusted people are naturally averse to beggaring their neighbors, especially when the taking is not going to support the legitimate functions of government or conducted in a legally correct manner. Simply stated, to justify the burden of militia service, the activity must align with authentic security and justice needs pertaining to “res publica”, public things.
This is why all legislation must be pursuant thereof to the operating charter by which the government exists, i.e., the constitution, and this applies at every level, ward, town, city, county, state, or nation. Strict adherence to the terms of the contract is the only means of ‘binding down’ the political caste from engaging in the ‘mischief’ they are inclined engage in. Again, We The People, as militia, are the only means by which this can be done.