Anything That Advances Americans’ Right to Armed Self-Defense Makes the NYT Very Uncomfortable

[The New York Times’ Mike McIntire’s] problem with Tennessee’s new law might not be resistance to expanded self-defense protections or even the growing number of firearms in the U.S., which he mentions in every section of the article, but disagreement with America’s core founding principles.

“It follows a distinctly American strain of thinking in which a person’s honor and autonomy are sacrosanct. Throughout the country’s history, defendants claiming self-defense have argued that their sovereignty is inviolable and must be protected, even to the point of violence,” McIntire wrote.

McIntire goes so far as to pretend that the Second Amendment “says nothing explicitly about an individual right to have a gun for everyday self-defense.”

“Locating that right in the Constitution became the grand project of the modern gun lobby,” McIntire confidently declares.

On the contrary, advocates of the Second Amendment have faced uphill battles at the Supreme Court and elsewhere to ensure the right to self-defense is not eradicated at the whim of gun-grabbers.

McIntire knows this. In fact, he spends paragraphs documenting the centuries-long history of American courts ditching the English concept that you must run from aggression in an effort to de-escalate. He even quotes one Indiana Supreme Court justice who said in 1877 that, “the tendency of the American mind seems to be very strongly against the enforcement of any rule which requires a person to flee when assailed, to avoid chastisement or even to save human life.”

McIntire labels this concept “personal honor” and even suggests that courts’ endorsement of it communicated that “standing your ground was a crucial aspect — maybe a necessary condition — of manhood.”

Anyone who has studied American history knows that principle is not simply “honor” but personal freedom. The founders believed the right to bear arms is an essential part of the right to revolution, so much so that they were willing to die for it. Infringing on or downplaying the Second Amendment threatens the rest of our constitutional system and undermines America — ideals and people.

The “right to kill” isn’t growing, as McIntire purports in his headline. It’s always been there thanks to the Second Amendment. What is growing is the number of states that are finally taking their constitutional duty to respect, protect, and reinforce constitutional rights like the Second Amendment seriously enough to pass laws that protect law-abiding Americans from unfair prosecution if they have to defend themselves and their property.

— Jordan Boyd in NYT Writer Pearl-Clutching About Self-Defense Laws Reveals His Contempt For The Constitution