Second Amendment
“Shall not be infringed” is pretty absolute. We must remain steadfast in our Constitutional rights, and continue to advance them against government regulation.
The current controversy around firearms follows the same pattern as most used by the left for political gain. The grotesque mass shootings that fit their narrative will be hyped by a compliant media; the shootings that are much more regular that doesn’t fit it will be forgotten.
I am against red flag laws, which are unconstitutional and will be abused continuously. The ATF needs to be severely curtailed. Suppressors need to be legal and taken out of the NFA registration/tax scheme.
We don’t need any more regulations on our behavior – we need more restrictions on the government. I applaud Missouri’s Second Amendment Preservation Act as a truly monumental step, hopefully, the first among many we soon see from the free states, to strike back at the federal government’s overreach.
As a Missouri farm kid, Recon Marine, and a federal contractor, firearms have been a part of my life since I was a teenager. The American taxpayer has paid tens of millions of dollars to train me to employ almost every kind of weapon in any situation. I’ve instructed firearms to military, both domestic and foreign, law enforcement, and civilians.
The mark of a true expert in the profession of arms is not the technical skill to hit a target, but the judgment to know when to employ one’s weapon.
The Second Amendment is enshrined in our Bill of Rights. Rights come with responsibilities. Our government, in its insidious attempt to strip us of our rights, has aimed at those responsibilities first. It wants us, as civilians, not to be accountable for our own safety, our own property, our own lives – big daddy government wants to take care of those for us.
Government wants us dependent and disarmed. Take back some of your sovereignty by not only exercising your right to firearms but also being responsible for their storage and maintenance. Become confident in firearms employment by investing in consistent and progressive training, especially under stressful conditions.
Let’s teach our younger generations the same.
Election Integrity
Our elections must be made trustworthy again. If we can’t trust the counting of votes, we lose trust in our Republic.
Voting is a right, and with rights come responsibilities (please see my writings on the Second Amendment above).
Citizens that choose to exercise their right to elect their representatives and thereby hold power over the State have a responsibility to declare themselves by their identity to that State.
The State may not compel you to reveal for whom you voted, but it must insist on publicly knowing who voted. There is no reason for a Citizen not to declare himself or herself appropriately when voting.
No state currently has any laws that place an undue burden on obtaining proper identification, and all attempts to prevent states from identifying voters and preventing election fraud are obvious attempts to influence elections.
This issue will need to be raised to the Constitutional Amendment level. In our current system, the individual states decide how they will enroll voters and decide electors. As the actions of one state affect other states on the level of federal elections, a Constitutional Amendment requiring states to employ measures to ensure proper voter identification would be in keeping with the ethos of the Constitution, and in the best interest of the Republic.
Yours, in service,
Dustin Hill
Candidate for U.S. Representative, Missouri’s 3rd District