This is what I have to say:
Date: May 2, 2000
JPFO Works to Protect All of the Bill of Rights
A brief answer to those who few who complained about JPFO's
alerts and billboard criticizing the federal invasion of the
private home in Florida.
1. JPFO is a civil rights organization, not a gun club.
JPFO has been encouraging all Americans to celebrate Bill of
Rights Day. The Bill of Rights is nine Amendments more than
just the Second Amendment.
2. Whenever the federal government instigates a search or
seizure in a private home, the Fourth Amendment comes into
play. It doesn't matter what the underlying issue is -- the
Fourth Amendment applies.
3. If federal government agents armed with battle gear
invade a home before dawn,
* without knocking,
* without serving a warrant,
* later claiming to have a warrant, which upon inspection
appears to be legally-defective or fraudulently-obtained,
* standing on the authority of an edict issued by an
unelected political figure,
* pointing an automatic rifle at an unarmed man holding a
child and screaming at him,
* when no criminal activity is suspected in the home, and
* when none of the occupants is suspected of committing a
crime or concealing evidence in a criminal case,
==> then America has a problem.
4. When poll results show that most Americans don't
understand the Constitutional issues involved in the federal
seizure of Elian Gonzalez, that means that JPFO has much
more work to do. JPFO won't rest until most Americans can
spot a Constitutional rights violation a mile away.
5. If you want to protect your right to keep and bear arms
(as guaranteed by the Second Amendment), then you had better
be motivated to protect all of the Bill of Rights for
everyone. All of the rights and protections of the
Constitution work together as a bulwark against tyranny.
Lose some of those rights and protections, and the others
will dribble away, too.
6. JPFO takes no position on the state law question of
custody of Elian Gonzalez. JPFO takes no position on the
immigration law question of asylum. JPFO, however, strongly
opposes any violation of the Bill of Rights.
7. The federal government does not get the "benefit of the
doubt." Government force must always answer to the
authority of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Every
time, no exceptions. As citizens, we have the natural right
and sacred duty to watch that government like a hawk -- and
to cry out loudly when that government even looks like it is
violating the Constitution. Read the Declaration of
Independence, the Federalist Papers, and Thomas Paine's
Common Sense. JPFO takes the Founding Father's view:
eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.
8. JPFO won't stop defending the Bill of Rights just because
media talking heads, apologists for government power, and
certain polled Americans don't "get it." Quitting this
fight is the last thing we will do.
Please see "Gran'pa Jack" Number 3 -- "Common Sense":
http://www.jpfo.org/gpjack3.htm which discusses every right
and protection protected by the Bill of Rights.
------------------
beemerb
We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world;
and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men
every day who don't know anything and can't read.
-Mark Twain
