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A personal account of one man’s dedication and efforts to ensure that West Virginia became a Second Amendment Sanctuary State.
The following is from Helvidius Priscus.
Currently, We the People of the United States of America, find ourselves involved, willingly or not, directly or indirectly, in a political, legal, cultural, social, and economic confrontation over the following words:
Such words should seem so simple to comprehend. They are codified in state constitutions across our country, as well as in 10 U.S. Code § 246, which states:
However, a wide array of forces are aggressively at work, which have as their ultimate goal the elimination of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as well as the comparative safe guards that are written into various state constitutions.
While only a higher power can know the true intentions and motivations of those who are pursing this agenda, the accumulated historical precedent of the past five thousand years of human existence from the Pharaohs of Egypt, to the King of England, to the Chancellor of Germany, and the various chairmen of the Soviet Union, China, et al., leads any objective analyst to conclude that they are not benevolent.
When weighed against the knowledge that there is no known human civilization that has not devolved into tyranny after disarming its citizens, regardless if that disarmament was voluntary as in the 1930’s German experience, we are left with the burden of asking ourselves, “What can I do?”
In a nation in which citizens who understand and appreciate the true protection that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides, we find that we are left with no allies in the Federal Government, as evidenced by the publicly announced plans of the current administration. There are no allies in the Federal Court System, as evidenced by continual refusal of the U.S. Supreme Court to engage on matters of the Second Amendment, despite continual flagrant disregard for prior U.S.S.C. rulings by lower Federal District Courts. There are no allies in large segments of mainstream media, nor social media, as evidenced by the extensive censorship, bias, and other narrative manipulation against the Second Amendment and supporters thereof. What can we possibly do to confront the impending darkness of tyranny that surrounds us?
It was against this alignment of opposition that this Second Amendment advocate sought refuge in what is ultimately the source of ALL federal power in our constitutional republic, regardless of how untethered it has become in the balance of power relationship as originally intended by our Founders and delineated in via the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, that being, the PEOPLE. In this republic, the PEOPLE maintain the power, and exercise that thru their elected representatives. That power is most effectively flexed at the state and local level.
As the manifest creators of the Federal Government, the States through their Union brought forth the Federal Government into existence. In as much as a child cannot be conceived without the union of mother and father, the Federal Government is in fact a child of the States and the States are its parents.
It is through the contract amongst the States known as the U.S. Constitution that we have attempted with a mix of success, but mostly failures to manage the relationship of parent to what has frequently been a petulant, arrogant, pompous, self-absorbed, pretentious, manipulative, self-righteous, child, which through the blissful naiveté of the parents, can only be described now as co-dependent. We have enabled the child with power, which is both perceived and real, greater than anything ever conceived or intended by the Founders of this nation; men who pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor so that we might throw off the shackles of a tyrant who demonstrated qualities similar in nature to the adolescent, drunk with power, which we now find ourselves living under the same roof with.
The first step towards reestablishing a functional relationship between the States and the Federal Government is to for the States to acknowledge and accept responsibility for enabling the abusive behavior exhibited by the Federal Government against its parents.
In any dysfunctional relationship, when one party comes to the realization that it has the power to stop enabling its own destruction, the next logical step is to, at a bare minimum, take action that transfers power from the abuser to the abused. All states, like all parents, can do just that. In the context of the States the most significant pathway is through the cessation of the acquiescence of their consent.
The Founders of the American Republic made clear in the Declaration of Independence:
As the hostility towards the Second Amendment increased in the Spring of 2021, many states across the country began looking for a proper method of resisting the anticipated federal overreach while being mindful of the warning of the Founders in the Declaration of Independence:
A realization began to materialize for many, including this Second Amendment advocate, that the most effective, non-kinetic, and politically symmetric means of maximizing resistance is to remove the consent of the people as expressed via their State Legislatures to the Federal Government in the realm of Second Amendment abuses.
Consent in any relationship is key, be it personal, business, or political. If Party A does not consent and conveys that lack of consent to the other party, Party B, either directly or indirectly, and Party B knowingly continues to engage in the expressed nonconsensual behavior, then Party B’s actions are not only disrespectful, and abusive, but they are demonstrating that a ‘state of war’ exists between the two parties as a violation of the established covenant has occurred.
As the Federal Government has no real power beyond that which the States consent to there is virtually nothing it can accomplish however malevolent or benevolent without the cooperation of the State Governments through State logistical, administrative, intelligence, and human resources.
Thus, the first objective to obfuscate the impending anti-Second Amendment maneuvers of the Federal Government would be to leverage the pre-existing “Second Amendment Sanctuary” resolutions that have taken place across the country on a county level and codify this effort into actual law as opposed to mere “resolutions” that may provide psychological benefit but no real enforcement mechanism behind them. Fittingly, a bill that would do just that was being supported by the West Virginia Citizens Defense League in the 2021 Session of the West Virginia Legislature.
West Virginia is a state with historical support for firearms, which is expressed on our state flag, the only one in the Union that bears two crossing rifles, in conjunction with the Latin phrase, Montani Semper Liberi, “Mountaineers Are Always Free,” and signifies that a free people secure that freedom through the force of arms. It is also a state that has a deeply embedded culture of firearm ownership, hunting, marksmanship, and more importantly, traditions of militia service that go back generations to the creation of the state.
Amid this backdrop of fervent pro-Second Amendment mindset, coupled with a hostile regime taking over the Federal Government on January 20, 2021, it was no surprise that as the 2021 Session of the West Virginia Legislature opened on January 13, 2021 that no less than 17 pro-Second Amendment bills were proposed in the West Virginia House of Delegates and the West Virginia Senate. Every one of the bills proposed would protect and defend aspects of the Second Amendment to one degree or another. Ultimately, as the legislative session concluded, five would be passed and all signed by the West Virginia Governor in April.
However, one bill stood out, which signified the perilous time we find ourselves in and rose with appropriate political response to match the danger present at this stage in the high stakes game of chess with the Federal Government.
We may yet find ourselves as a nation reaching a “Patrick Henry: Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” moment where we no longer indulge in the “illusions of hope”, and it may be written by future generations that the actions taken in good conscience by not just the West Virginia Legislature, but others across the country were but one step on the road towards the inevitable. However, at this moment in time, we enter the future with eyes wide open, knowing that the day may soon come when we ask ourselves, as he so eloquently expressed, “What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted?”
We will be able to answer that question in the affirmative. Like the Founders of America, every course of action that could be taken was exhausted. It is of the highest duty, both to ourselves and our progeny, to ensure that this remains the answer to history.
In that vein, this writer sought to place substantial effort into making sure that what would later be known as West Virginia House Bill 2694: The West Virginia Second Amendment Preservation and Anti-Federal Commandeering Act of 2021 was passed by both Chambers of the West Virginia Legislature and signed into law by the West Virginia Governor.
The bill would prohibit federal commandeering of state resources as well as place a variety of restrictions on police activity with respect to federal firearms laws, federal executive orders, and federal regulations. It would establish, and codify in law, West Virginia as a “Second Amendment Sanctuary State.” It would also send an important psychological message to the new federal administration that formally, in writing, for the world to know that West Virginia would draw a line in the sand in defense of the Second Amendment rights of its citizens.
As the legislative session unfolded, a type of command, control and communications center developed from the comfort of a living room couch, or a front porch chair. If it was one thing that has been learned in twenty years of professional work, the squeaky wheel gets the attention. With the last day of the 2021 Legislative Session being April 10, time was of the essence to keep the daily heat on the legislators via e-mails.
A methodical battle plan was developed to leverage:
1. E-mail contacts throughout the state of fellow pro-Second Amendment supporters.
2. National Rifle Association (NRA), Gun Owners of America (GOA) and West Virginia Citizens Defense League (WVCDL) “Take Action” Alerts.
3. Multiple contact lists for the full West Virginia House of Delegates and West Virginia Senate.
4. Multiple WV House and Senate committees.
As the bill worked its way through the process to final signature by the Governor, communications warfare operations were planned, coordinated, and timed to maximize the impact to an individual house member, senator, committee, or the House or Senate as a whole. This involved a series of template applicable letters that could be quickly sent out to a given audience, be it an individual or group of individuals and were delivered in such a way as to add ‘public’ or ‘private’ heat to an individual or group based upon the tactical impact objective sought. Letters were sent to a committee Chairman, and only them, but also be slightly modified and sent to the entire committee as a CC so that everyone on the committee understood that all were getting the same communications traffic, allowing each element to provide multiples of impact. Each communications package was mapped from a tactical level back to the strategic objective of ensuring that the bill is passed by both Chambers and signed by the Governor.
Strategic advantage was also applied by involving the use of the administrative command structure of both the committees as well as the House and Senate itself for strategic advantage. Chairmen, Deputy Chairmen, Committee “Whips”, House and Senate “Whips”, Majority and Minority Leaders and Deputy Leaders were all identified and selected relative to their place in the bureaucratic Chair of Command.
As the days quickly turned into weeks, with the inevitable ups and downs of a process such as this, lists of lists expanded such that with minimal notice, several thousand e-mails could be generated from across the state at strategic moments of importance. Emails were sent just prior to committee votes, amendment votes, amendments to amendment votes and ultimately full House and Senate votes, which occurred on the last day of the legislative sessions, adding additional drama and suspense. The question of whether the bill would ever make it to the Governor had all its supporters on edge!
By the time the 60-day session was over, perhaps an estimated 5,000 + emails were coordinated and generated via the maximization of every communications asset available, some 2,000 of which were delivered in the last 36 hours of the session.
All of this was made possible by one man at an undisclosed location on a mountain in West Virginia who has a passion, commitment, and the willingness to try to make a positive difference within the system as presented to us, while the opportunity is still available.
The one unspoken elephant in the room which was observed watching countless hours of committee, House, and Senate debates was that the passage of this act will set in motion a sequence of events, foreseen and unforeseen.
Are we as human beings left with only a “host of holly horrors to direct our aimless dance” as the Rush song Freewill seeks to answer? Or, do we in fact have freewill to take an action, to participate in a sequence of events that are greater than ourselves? Are we prisoners to our fears or are we inspired by the hope of a better future?
When the time came to answer those questions on April 10, 2021 the members of the West Virginia House and Senate did not succumb to fear of the unknown, but instead rose to the occasion, like countless other patriots during previous times of great stress, tension, and apprehension. They stood tall to pass The West Virginia Second Amendment Preservation and Anti-Federal Commandeering Act of 2021 with a vote of 74 to 22 in the West Virginia House of Delegates and 30 to 4 in the West Virginia Senate.
The West Virginia Governor signed the bill on April 27, 2021 with the law going into full force on July 9, 2021. Applicable legal provisions on Prohibiting Federal Commandeering, Prohibited Police Activity and Prohibited Court Activity are retroactive to January 1, 2021.
A sense of relief provides a measure of solace at its passage and soon to be implementation. For the moment a level of protection envelopes the citizens of West Virginia from the all but certain federal overreach against the Second Amendment.
Wars, be they political or otherwise, are not one-sided. The enemy gets a vote on battle plans, strategy, and tactics. The enemy has the opportunity to react to all of the aforementioned, and if history is any guide, they will. There is the hope of course that the actions taken today in but one state might, however unlikely, present a moment of pause for those who seek the elimination of the Second Amendment.
Personally, the lessons learned during the past 60 days will most certainly be applied to future engagements as they develop here in West Virginia. Anyone and everyone of like mind is encouraged to leverage the road map laid out above for achieving a legislative success in their own state on not only this topic, but others as well. It is far more likely, given the current federal administration, that greater opportunity for success will be had by focusing at the state level and ignoring the federal level.
For now, there is the practical, on the ground assessment, and satisfaction that, in fact, one man can, if determined, confront the darkness of tyranny, even if for only a brief moment in time.
When Vespasian sent for Helvidius Priscus and commanded him not to go into the senate, he replied, "It is in your power not to allow me to be a member of the Senate, but so long as I am, I must go in." "Well, go in then," says the emperor, "but say nothing." "Do not ask my opinion, and I will be silent." "But I must ask your opinion." "And I must say what I think right." "But if you do, I shall put you to death." "When then did I tell you that I am immortal? You will do your part, and I will do mine: it is your part to kill; it is mine to die, but not in fear: yours to banish me; mine to depart without sorrow." Epictetus, Discourses, 1.2.19-21
~ Helvidius Priscus ~
30 April 2021
West Virginia
Thanks to Helvidius Priscus for not only his efforts at coordinating the email blitzkrieg, which was instrumental in turning West Virginia into a Second Amendment Sanctuary State, but also for taking the time to tells us about it.
Namaste folks,
Mark
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