By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
There are two “pillars of freedom” which must be at the forefront of the fight over Second Amendment rights: Protecting the right, and Protecting the person.
That was the message from Tom Grieve, founding attorney at the U.S. Concealed Carry Association (USCCA), and he discussed them during the recent Gun Rights Policy Conference, beginning his remarks by correcting self-appointed gun control champion David Hogg, dismissed from the DNC but still capitalizing on his media-created celebrity status as a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida when it was the scene of a mass shooting eight years ago.
Hogg claimed, back in 2023, “You have no right to a gun. You are not a militia.”
Grieve offered historical documentation that Hogg was dishing slop. Grieve quoted George Washington, who observed, “A free people ought not only to be armed but disciplined.”
He then quoted Thomas Jefferson: “The great object is that every man be armed.”
Grieve further quoted George Mason, who wrote, “Who is the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except for a few public officers.”
And, he included a remark from Richard Henry Lee: “The militia, when properly formed, are the people, themselves.”
Washington and Jefferson were presidents, while Mason and Lee were among the Founding Fathers.
The GRPC audience was in concurrence when Grieve suggested that any “fraud” relating to interpretations of the Second Amendment belongs to Hogg and his contemporaries.
“The shot that rang out around the world at the North bridge, at the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 19, 1775,” Grieve recalled, “That, of course, started (the Revolution). Our nation was born because the colonists were resisting illegal and immoral and inhumane gun control grabs from their government.”
In reference to the Founders he quoted, Grieve further observed, “Our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution are written by the so-called gun lobby, and I, and I know the rest of you, are proud to be part of being called that gun lobby, too.”
Grieve sarcastically thanked Hogg “and the people in his extremist anti-human rights activity circle,” by stating, “We have five Supreme Court rulings in just the last 20 years that have definitively stated on the record, resourced and searched back to the Founding Fathers, the fact that the Second Amendment is, in fact, not only an individual right that, no, you don’t have to be wearing a uniform in order to be using, in order to be carrying, in order to be passing on to the next generation, but it is a primal right. It’s something that goes much deeper than that the Second Amendment recognizes a pre-existing natural law.”
He then reminded the audience that the Second Amendment Foundation, which co-hosts the annual Gun Rights Conference, has been involved in those cases, one way or another. SAF was a plaintiff in the 2010 McDonald case, and is currently a plaintiff in both cases which will be argued before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Dec. 2.
“That’s remarkable, absolutely remarkable,” he said, “for an organization, that when they were founded back in 1974, there was no Second Amendment jurisprudence. The Second Amendment Foundation is a very flattered organization and we’re all very fortunate that Alan Gottlieb had the vision to found it to put us where we are today.
“You can challenge the local gun laws in your state thanks to the Second Amendment Foundation,” he commented.
He then shifted to protecting the person.
“How many of you. He inquired, “have had to take a phone call from someone that just shot someone moments before and they’re panicked because they understand that they made it through the kinetic event but they also understand that they may not see their family again without being through bars or 2-inch thick glass. That is a very strong mortal fear.”
This becomes what Grieve called “the process of punishment.” It’s what happens when an armed citizen winds up dealing with the justice system.
“Every time you put a firearm on your hip, you are possibly going to be coming into contact with that system,” he cautioned.
The current estimate in defensive gun uses annually comes up to 2.5-3 million, Grieve said. He then offered some alarming statistics.
“I can tell you that statistically, according to the Department of Justice, if you’re a man you are 140% more likely to be injured if you comply with your attacker compared to if you resist with a firearm,” he said. “You’re 150% more likely to be injured if you physically resist without a gun
“You think it’s going to get better if you’re a lady, or worse,” he added. “Way worse. About 250% more likely to be injured if you comply and 400% more likely to be injured if you try to physically resist without a firearm.”
Fewer than half of all the people licensed to carry concealed do so on a daily or regular basis, he said.
“But when we know stuff like this,” he questioned, “why is it that not everybody carries a gun?”
There is an ongoing battle over the right to keep and bear arms. He summed it up noting, “We know why people carry guns, we know why people want them. We know that they’re effective.”
But Grieve closed his remarks by reminding the audience, “We are in a cultural war. We must win that cultural war.”
