Even when they’re doing the right thing, Liberty-minded politicians just seem to get it all backwards.

A recent news report out of Arkansas both gives me hope and leaves me shaking my head in wonder.

Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe, a Democrat, signed into law on Monday a bill that allows concealed-carry permit holders to take their weapons into churches.

The Church Protection Act would allow individual places of worship to decide whether to allow concealed handguns and who could carry them. Churches that take no action will remain off-limits to guns.

That Arkansas, South Carolina, Wyoming and Louisiana “allow” citizens to carry concealed firearms to protect themselves and their loved ones in places is commendable, but I can’t help but think they have it all backward.

Rights don’t require “permission” from anyone, especially government.  Our Rights precede government, and the only duty of government is to protect those rights.

That said, what I would prefer to see folks like Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe do is repeal all laws that violate our Rights, not decree which Rights we are “allowed” to exercise.

“Shall Not Be Infringed” is pretty clear language, even for a Liberal or Democrat yet year after year we see governments at all levels infringing on our Rights.

To quote former Ontario gunsmith Bruce Montague, the man who mounted a Constitutional Challenge to Canada’s Firearms Act,

“We have the Right to Life, which means we must have the right to own the tools necessary to protect that life.”  

Firearms are the most effective tool for protecting ourselves from those who would do us harm, as Ian Thomson of Port Colbourne, Ontario, knows all too well.  When 4 masked men attempted to burn down Ian Thomson’s home while he was inside it, the only thing that stopped them from completing their task was Ian’s firearms.

Any law that restricts or prohibits us from exercising our Rights and Freedoms must be repealed.

When you are forced to ask “government permission” to do something, it’s not a Right, it’s a privilege, and governments can stop granting those privileges any time it likes.