The Czech Republic is weighing a Second Amendment-like change to their constitution to protect gun rights from an ever-encroaching European Union (EU).
The amendment was proposed by Interior Minister Milan Chovanec.
According to EURACTIV, “the proposed EU Firearms Directive” played into the motivation for the amendment. The directive uses recent terrorism events like the January 7, 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks and the November 13, 2015 Paris attacks as grounds for banning more gun ownership among law abiding citizens.
The amendment’s “explanatory memorandum” says: “The proposal has to be perceived in the context of [the] European Commission’s efforts to limit owners of legal weapons under the pretense of fight against terrorism.”
The amendment is supported by the Social Democrats but Martin Plíšek, of the “opposition TOP 09 party,” says the proposed amendment to protect gun rights is “useless.” Plisek claims “there is no need to set the right to possession of weapon by a constitutional law.” No explanation was provided for Plisek’s position, but EURACTIV did report that the EU Firearms Directive has been softened, making it seem like the EU’s anti-gun plans are not as overreaching at this time as they first appeared.
It is interesting to note that in U.S. history, when the framework for the federal government was being established, there was disagreement among federalists and anti-federalists over the need for a Second Amendment to protect the right to keep and bear arms.
Both groups supported an armed citizenry and believed such a citizenry served as a check on the government, but the federalists were not in all cases sure that one needed to go so far as to hedge in gun rights with an amendment in order to preserve them. Fortunately for 21st century Americans, arguments for such an amendment won the day and the Second Amendment was ratified on December 15, 1791.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.