I need to ask a favor of you. I want to have a real, honest conversation about freedom, and what it actually takes to keep it.
Let’s talk about the Second Amendment. For many of us, especially those who have served, it is the ultimate symbol of a free people. The final guarantee against tyranny. I get that. I respect that.
But I want you to think of the Constitution not as a list of separate rights, but as a stone arch. A powerful, resilient structure designed to hold the immense weight of our Republic.
The Second Amendment is a heavy and important stone in that arch. But it does not stand alone.
It is supported by the First Amendment—the right to speak freely, to question our leaders, to assemble in protest.
It is held in place by the Fourth Amendment—the right to be secure in our own homes from government intrusion, from warrantless searches and seizures.
It is braced by the Fifth Amendment—the guarantee that we cannot be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.
Each of these rights is a perfectly cut stone, placed with care, supporting all the others.
Here is the hard truth, the one that the architects of our division do not want you to understand: You cannot pull one stone from an arch and expect the rest of it to stand.
If we, as a people, stand by and allow the First Amendment to be chipped away for those we disagree with…
If we look the other way while the Fourth is eroded for a group we have been taught to fear…
If we ignore the violations of the Fifth because they are happening to someone else…
…then the entire structure becomes weak. The foundation cracks. And the very stone that holds the Second Amendment in place will eventually have nothing to support it. A government that does not respect your right to speak is a government that will not, in the end, respect your right to be armed.
Freedom is not about picking your favorite right from a list. It is about the hard, daily, and often frustrating work of defending the entire arch. It is a covenant. A promise we make to each other to be the guardians of the whole, beautiful, and fragile structure.
Our allegiance must be to the whole document, or it is to nothing at all.