Thomas Massie

U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie represents Northern Kentucky.

Many battles await Congress as we begin 2016, but few are more important than the fight to protect our right to bear arms. Our right to self-defense is not granted by any government. Rather, it is a God-given, natural right.

In the words of George Mason, the Founding Father known as the “Father of the Bill of Rights”: “To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.” Benjamin Franklin said: “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.” And he could well have added: “Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”

Tragically, when a criminal goes on a shooting spree or a terrorist attacks innocent people, the administration and some members of Congress immediately call for more gun control. Just days after the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, many Democrats took to the House floor to declare that guns themselves cause crime and terrorism.

Unfortunately, gun control advocates never acknowledge that criminals and terrorists by definition have no respect for the law. Therefore, passage of stringent gun control measures only disarms and punishes honest, law-abiding citizens.

During my time representing Kentucky’s Fourth District, I have battled to protect my constituents’ and all Americans’ Second Amendment rights. For example, during the 113th Congress, my amendment to block the District of Columbia from using federal taxpayer dollars to violate gun rights passed 241 to 181. Twenty Democrats even voted in favor. The amendment was appropriately attached to the annual appropriations bill that funds the District of Columbia (H.R. 5016). It would have blocked the District of Columbia from enforcing laws that prevent D.C. residents and visitors from owning and carrying firearms. In fact, the vote on my amendment was one of the only significant gun-rights votes allowed in the House during the entire 113th Congress.

Last June my amendment to stop the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ ban on common rifle ammunition passed 250 to 171. It was attached to the annual Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill which funds the bureau (H.R. 2578). The administration has threatened to ban, and has banned, common rifle ammunition via its overly broad interpretation of laws that govern handgun ammunition. My amendment would have clarified that ammunition cannot be retroactively treated as “armor piercing” simply because a handgun is later designed that can shoot the rifle ammunition.

Unfortunately, due to Senate inaction, my amendments were not included in the final government funding bills for each year, despite their passage by such wide margins in the House.

A few weeks ago, I led 14 of my House colleagues in filing an amicus (“friend-of-the-court”) brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Our brief asks the court to protect the Second, First and Fifth amendments to the Constitution by ruling for the plaintiff in Defense Distributed v. U.S. Department of State. Plaintiff’s attorney is Alan Gura, who has previously delivered landmark victories for Second Amendment advocates.

Defense Distributed is a Texas nonprofit that defends gun rights. In 2013, it published free technical information about 3D printing of legal firearms on the internet. The State Department claimed that this violates the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), a series of rules that ban the export of sensitive information, and forced Defense Distributed to remove the information. Defense Distributed argues that this violates its rights, since nothing in the ITAR allows the State Department to block lawful speech about firearms. My brief asserts that Congress never intended to shut down such speech when it passed the statute that authorized ITAR. The outcome of this case could impact my constituents and all Americans.

As we ring in the New Year, I will continue this fight.