By Roger Barbee

Several counties in North Carolina have become, “sanctuary counties.”

Resolutions were passed in these counties by locally elected officials that declare the local jurisdiction an area that will protect Second Amendment gun rights of law-abiding citizens.

The founding fathers were well-versed in Latin. Their English derived from Latin, and we need to keep that in mind as we read what they wrote. After all, what they wrote is all we have; we cannot ask any of the 39 signers what he or the committee meant. So, with the Second Amendment, we need to possess knowledge of the main clauses from Latin and how they were used in English. A clause is either independent, which means it can, when written with a capital letter at the beginning and ending with a period, make sense.

When I write these well-known words as a sentence, they make perfect sense: “The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

However, the other oft-quoted words, when written as a sentence, do not make sense: “A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free state.” Why? Because it is a clause modifier that supports and explains the reason behind the independent clause which follows. So, by understanding the written words of the founding fathers, we see that the reason citizens are allowed to keep “arms” is for “a well regulated Militia,” and not for any other reason.

But this is a discussion that goes nowhere because so many gun owners refuse to see the entire intent of the  amendment.

In Cabarrus County a candidate for county commissioner, Barbara Strang, went too far. She said that the commissioners had been sent different drafts of a resolution and that their lack of action was of concern to gun owners.  She continued, “It’s a constitutional right and it’s a God-given right and it’s something our citizens don’t want to be taken away.”

I will grant that she is allowed her misreading of the Constitution. But, where does she find Biblical support for guns being a “God-given right?”

We will debate the intent of our founding fathers, but there is no debate concerning God and guns.

Roger Barbee lives in Mooresville.