Owning weapons is an unalienable right that was recognized by America's founders as an indispensable element in establishing a real deterrent to tyranny in government. Putting it more plainly, America's founders knew that, without their weapons, they could not have freed themselves from the tyranny of the British Crown, so they ratified the Second Amendment in order to clarify that no government has legitimate power to infringe the right to bear arms.

If not for their eager use of military-grade weapons, the colonists could never have defeated the British army and its mercenaries in the 18th century. The United States of America would not today exist if the American colonists had not owned weapons of the same type owned by the British and Hessian soldiers.

If Americans are suppressed by their government, if their rights are further abridged, and if American government becomes able to commit more of the kinds of egregious abuses that other despotic regimes have committed, it will be due in great part to the general confiscation of firearms from the civil population, who would then become defenseless in the face of government tyranny.

Don't imagine that such tyranny could not take place. There are already symptoms of the growth of tyranny in America. Unconstitutional legislation is nothing new, while what contradicts the Constitution represents an incursion into tyranny, leaning away from rule of law and toward rule by the whims of those in power.

The Florida Legislature has already on more than one occasion passed unconstitutional legislation in an effort to infringe the right to bear arms. That was achieved by a Florida Legislature the majority of the members of which were registered Republicans. Governor Rick Scott did not veto their last attempt last year, but signed it into law, in violation of law. The law thus passed is invalid but in force. That is tyranny.

But rather than recognizing their blunder and repealing it, the government of Florida is doubling down by advancing its agenda of infringing the right to bear arms. An anti–semiautomatic weapons initiative may appear on Florida's 2020 ballot as a referendum. A majority of voters could decide in 2020 whether to outlaw semiautomatic weapons.

Just one problem: An unalienable right does not originate either from governments or from men. As the Declaration of Independence states, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights[.]" Rights come from God. So whenever men try to suppress rights, they act against men and God. They become tyrants.

Neither do governments have delegated power to infringe the right to bear arms, nor does a majority of the voters have the legitimate authority to determine that God-granted rights should be infringed. Referenda have no legitimacy with regard to determining whether or not to infringe a God-granted right.

The corrupt bureaucracy hopes to bamboozle America into accepting the vote of a majority on this issue. A majority vote in favor of banning semiautomatic weapons would facilitate the leftist agenda of disarming Americans. But it would have to result in a great deal of bloodshed, as millions of Americans are no more willing to be disarmed today than were in the 18th-century American colonists who used their military-grade weapons to defeat the British.

Educated Americans understand that once a government attempts to disarm the people, genocide is not far behind. That is a historical norm. And they understand that tyranny by majority vote is tyranny.