Guest Editorial
By Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce | aUGUST 27, 2015
Should SB1070 Be Secondary to... SB1108?
Crime Control vs. The Bill of Rights
The entire world, driven by news-media reports, has become fixated on the illegal-immigrant invasion Arizona has suffered under for years.
The invasion had previously been ignored, a news-media black hole from which little real information escaped.
The catalyst for the attention is my bill SB1070, which empowers our law enforcement agencies to deal with the invasion. We passed the bill because along with the feds the state and local governments are aiding and abetting the invaders, instead of stopping them and defending the nation against a flood of biblical proportions.
In its frenzy the media missed huge Bill of Rights restoration in Arizona. SB1070 is a criminal statute, enacted to treat symptoms of the very harmful crime of sneaking into a nation without permission, involved in serious criminal activity, billions in cost, jobs taken from Americans, and leaching off the nation's success and abundance. I do not want to undermine the importance of SB1070 and the national debate way over due on this issue.
A different law, SB1108, for which I am as responsible as I am for SB1070, is a critically important act. SB1108 is no simple crime-control law. It repeals outrageous infringements to the Bill of Rights, reinstating wholesome fullness to the right to keep and bear arms.
The media however, driven by a nearly fanatical racist miasma, has blindly focused on the immigration-crime law, finding racism where none exists – at the expense of even seeing the strengthened Bill of Rights.
The media inaccurately conflated the racial (not racist) nature of our invasion, with the powers in the immigration bill, which are pure law enforcement. That's because the invaders are overwhelmingly Hispanic – though the Border Patrol says 20 percent are OTMs – "Other Than Mexicans."
Civil rights were reborn here on the same day the anti-invasion bill took effect, but the media ignored that. While they cried racism, "Constitutional Carry" restored fundamental civil rights to anyone on the planet who enters the state of Arizona legally. This bill extends rights to all people.
The God-given right to protect your family, your property and yourself from immediate physical harm has been accepted since the dawn of civilization. It was ensconced in the Constitution when the Founding Fathers put the Second Amendment in our Bill of Rights. There was little controversy over this well understood, deeply rooted basic human right until recently, when forces of darkness began attacking many of the truths we hold to be self evident.
Arizona now has the most robust protection for the right to keep arms, and the right to bear arms, anywhere on Earth. How could media pundits miss that?
Are they so blinded by imagined racism they find where there is none, that they can't see what was put in front of them at a packed news conference the day before either law took effect?
In times just recently past, enactment of a law that frees every decent adult in the world to carry a gun with no prior permission would have led to a national uproar.
Could it be that a law crafted to prevent illegal activity is more important than the historic renewal of a cherished human right?
Maybe the media is just tired of crying wolf? They screamed about imminent blood-in-the-streets when Arizona's gun-permit law passed in 1994, but nothing ever happened (and they never apologized).
They convulsed recently about anticipated wild-west mayhem when a 30-year-old ban on gun possession was repealed for National Parks, but nothing happened (and they showed no remorse for the fear mongering).
When Arizona's restaurant gun ban was lifted a year-and-a-half ago, we heard insane screeching about impending homicidal frenzy from "shotguns in nightclubs," but it turned out that breakfast at Denny's or lunch at Applebee's is really a mild-mannered affair. No correction has been issued or is expected.
So why should the media pay any attention to a law that merely restores the Second Amendment, not just for citizens but for any law-abiding adult who legally visits?
Who really cares that amassed infringements on 10 percent of the Bill of Rights have finally been overturned, without bloodshed?
Why even bother covering a law that one other state, Alaska, passed in 2003?
Does it really matter that states all over the union are now seeking Constitutional Carry for themselves?
Could people care less if a place like Arizona frees its women to put handguns in their handbags, go about their business and return home without fear of arrest? How could feminists or NOW complain about that?
Would it bore people if you told them Sen. Pearce's bill and its chief advocates, the Arizona Citizens Defense League (azcdl.org) worked for the past five years to make statute conform to the state's Constitution?
No one wants to hear that all these crazies are carrying guns and no one is getting shot. How could that possibly be newsworthy?
And perhaps most of all, people don't want to hear that government's exit from the enforced-training game is a business-stimulus plan.
Private enterprise within the state has launched the TrainMeAZ.com campaign to promote a culture of marksmanship and gun safety to every person in the state. This is Arizona – learn to shoot straight. Marksmanship matters. Teach your children well. Why would the news media ever cover that, even if it is going up on billboards statewide?
The Constitutional Carry law and TrainMeAZ campaign have ignited a firestorm of entrepreneurism and rekindled a burning desire to restore the nation of marksmen our Founder envisioned. An entire state trained to arms, what a concept.
I personally urge the nation to look at what we've done with Defensive Display, Castle Doctrine inside and outside the home, Burden of Proof, Specious Civil Suit immunity, Firearms Freedom Act, Preemption and more. Make your legislatures emulate the freedom of spirit that thrives in the Grand Canyon State. Come visit and feel what it's like to be a free adult instead of a ward of the state. You may not want to leave. And if you do leave, you'll take the spirit for freedom back home with you.
Russell Pearce is the President of the Arizona State Senate, Republican Senator from Arizona legislative district 25 and author of the anti-illegal immigration bill SB1070, and the Constitutional Carry law for firearms, SB1108, neither of which are controversial in point of fact.
