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I am a pacifist. I have cut back on my shooting so it’s only 50-100 rounds a day, other than .22LR, air rifle, and dry fire, because I’m a pacifist. Still, not everyone likes peace as much as I do.

There are some pacifists who like peace so much that besides following the old quote, “if you wish for peace, prepare for war,” they will take direct action to restore peace when faced with a threat to their liberty. Those who support government tyranny, whether from the left or from the right, would be wise to remember that many peaceful people are the exact folks they don’t want to rile up.

I am also a law abiding person. I am always aware that the Constitution of the United States has a special legal status: “this Constitution and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof . . . shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby.” As a law-abiding person, I get uneasy when anyone, even those who claim to act on behalf of government or otherwise under color of law, violates that Constitution.

There are some law-abiding people who have so much respect for the law that they read the words of 1776 when those from 1787-1791 are threatened.

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, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

I hope the rule of law under limited government can be restored peacefully. Unfortunately, I am more often reminded of Franklin’s skepticism “a Republic, if you can keep it” and Jefferson’s comment that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time.” We are much better armed than the Founding Fathers and their neighbors, and our arms are much more dispersed. The people can restore the rule of law, whether or not the government cooperates. I am hoping for cooperation and for limited government in the immediate future, because I am both a pacifist and law-abiding.