The purpose of this petition is to show support for Senator Halloran’s LB 188 bill that would adopt the Second Amendment Preservation Act. This Act would forbid state employees from enforcing federal laws that infringe the right to bear arms.

Our founding fathers wisely provided us with the right to keep and bear arms for several reasons. The first of these reasons was to provide for a citizen militia. The need for citizen militia has not diminished over all these years. In spite of the efforts of some to rewrite our history, in the Second World War, Japan’s Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was quoted as saying: "You cannot invade mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass.". The premise is as true today as it was in World War II. It would be extremely difficult for any invading army to defeat a defending citizen militia consisting of every able bodied US citizen. Disarming our citizens would only embolden our enemies, and stifle our nations defenses.

The second important reason for the Second Amendment is for free men to be fully equipped and able to defend themselves against a tyrannical government. Our founders included the phrase "shall not be infringed" not only to protect us from falling victim to confiscations, but also to prevent limiting the type and number of arms we are able to own. The founders writings actually spoke of revolution as a necessary part of maintaining a free country. Limiting our firearms ownership limits our rights to live in freedom, with self governance as was intended by our founders.

The third important reason for the Second Amendment is our basic human right to protect ourselves, our families and the innocent from those who would do us harm. Limiting our right to use arms to defend our very lives is a violation of nature, and a violation of our most basic human rights.

It is not an accident that the other reasons to keep and bear arms, invariably the only reasons stated by proponents of gun control, are the least important reasons of all, and are not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution or the writings of our founding fathers. While many of us enjoy hunting and sport shooting, and in the interest of personal freedom should not be infringed, we no longer need firearms to keep our families fed. To be certain, our wildlife management agencies would agree that hunting is necessary to control wildlife populations in the absence of natural populations of predators. One can also not ignore that target shooting is every bit as fun as other past times, such as golf or bowling. There is also a large number of gun owners who maintain firearms as curators of significant world history, as you would preserve any other historical archive.

Gun control advocates concentrate most of their arguments on hunting and target shooting, ignoring more important reasons, because it allows them to limit the type and quantity of firearms owned. A musket might very well be a fine weapon to use for hunting, but hunting, target shooting or historical ownership has nothing to do with the reasons for the Second Amendment as stated by our founders. Free men must be able to own arms to protect themselves against any who would do us harm. We must question the motives of anyone who would wish to limit our firearms rights and wonder if their motive is to do us harm, and bring tyranny to our nation. We must never allow our right to keep and bear arms to be infringed, or taken from us.