Madison Cawthorn: “For over 200 years, American citizens have chosen dangerous freedom over peaceful subjugation. For the past few decades…”

“For over 200 years, American citizens have chosen dangerous freedom over peaceful subjugation. For the past few decades, the American patriot has watched in horror as the Federal Government has opened the shackles of safety and firmly clamped them around the Second Amendment. As the Second Amendment restrictions have risen, so has violent crime. Washington wonders in one moment why violent crime is rising, and then takes away the right of Americans to defend themselves in the next. Mr. Speaker, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives exists for the sole purpose of regulating and keeping me from three of the things I hold most dear as an American. This administration's proposed head of the ATF thinks that the Second Amendment was created for hunting and sporting. David Chipman could not be more wrong. The purpose of the Second Amendment was and is to hold back a tyrannical government. Chipman's tyrannical reading of the Constitution would turn millions of Americans into criminals overnight. I am here to tell you today that these Americans who seek to defend their right to bear arms are not the criminals our Nation ought to be concerned by. Mr. Speaker, the most dangerous threat to our safety and security does not arise from Americans wanting to protect themselves. No, it comes from men and women like those in this Chamber who would choose the quiet of servitude over the tumult of liberty.…”