Shoveling Concrete and the Second Amendment

 Krayton Kerns
3.12.08

One summer I was as a grunt for a concrete company.  I had no responsibility and the job description read “shut up and shovel.”  It was great.  Summers previous I had been home running the hay crew so managing people, breakdowns and weather rested on my shoulders.  But as a $5.50 per hour shovel grunt, I had none of the concerns of upper management.  The job was strenuous but it was simple. 

Practicing veterinary medicine can also be simple.  If I surround myself with talented people I can “shut up and shovel” and the workday runs smoothly.  The management responsibilities can be shared by them so I become a veterinary grunt.  My workday stopped being simple February 6, 2006; the day I ran for the legislature.   

I have always been politically aware.  With a wife, family and a business you better keep an eye on Washington and Helena.  But it wasn’t until I threw myself into the middle of it that I learned the magnitude of the threats to our freedom.  My predecessors, Ken Miller, Brad Molnar, Jeff Laszloffy, and Dan McGee, all knew it.  I didn’t.  No longer just a concrete or veterinary grunt, in the legislature I am on the frontlines.  

Each week I bring you to the trenches because we are all in this together.  So, after four rambling paragraphs, I will get to today’s point.  Something big is about to happen in the US Supreme Court and it is being ignored.  Here are three things you should know:  

·        The Second Amendment of the US Constitution reads:  “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

·        Section 13 of Article III of the 1889 Montana Constitution reads:  “The right of any person to keep or bear arms in defense of his own home, person, and property, or in aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned, shall not be called in question…”

·        In 1889 our founding fathers authored our Montana Constitution and signed a Compact with the United States to join the Union. 

Today the US Supreme Court is hearing a case that critically involves these three points.  I will pause for a moment while you read them again…….Study them as if your freedom depends on it; because it does! 

The case in question, Heller v. District of Columbia, involves the prohibition by Washington DC to allow Mr. Heller the right to carry his firearm in his personal residence.  DC maintains that the Second Amendment is a collective right and thus only applies to the militia or National Guard.  Mr. Heller claims the Second Amendment is an individual right and thus the DC firearm ban is unconstitutional.  

Heller v. DC is the first gun-rights case heard before the Supreme Court in 70 years.  If they rule the Second Amendment is a collective right you can expect the gun-control leftists to push for confiscation and destruction of your firearms.  If the court agrees it is an individual right, nothing changes. 

However, for Montana a collective right decision gets even more complicated.  Such a decision places the Second Amendment in clear conflict with the “any person” statement in the 1889 Montana Constitution.   This conflict will breach our 1889 Compact with the United States and our joining of the Union is in question.  What are we supposed to do? 

This is a potentially serious situation.  For now I signed a resolution with 39 other Montana elected officials to bring this potential breech of contract to the attention of the US Supreme Court.  Other states have a similar conflict; they just don’t know it yet.  I will be watching this case closely as this will be a huge Supreme Court decision.  (Do you see why my life was so much simpler when I just shoveled concrete?)