Ted Poe: “When I was at a town hall meeting in Texas recently, a local man came up to me afterward to talk about his concerns over…”

“When I was at a town hall meeting in Texas recently, a local man came up to me afterward to talk about his concerns over where our country was headed-- something to do with a fiery inferno in a hand basket. Anyway, as he was talking to me, I noticed his T-shirt. Here's what it said: ``I love my Bible,'' and it had a photograph of the Bible, ``and I love my guns,'' with a photograph of two .45 Colt revolvers. Naturally they were in the right order. After all, he was a local preacher. The most important right we have as Americans is the freedom of speech, and that includes the freedom of religion. It's first in the constitutional Bill of Rights because without it, none of the rest would be possible. The right to bear arms is the Second Amendment because without it, we could not protect the First Amendment. The recent Supreme Court decision simply stated the obvious as it is written in the Bill of Rights: ``A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.'' Now I'm sure the halls of academia were all up in arms about the right to bear arms. The media immediately began spreading the shocking news: the Supreme Court actually upheld the Constitution. Oh, the hysteria they went through. They said, Murder rates will surely double upon the mere announcement of this. Never mind the fact that more gun control does not lower murder rates; it actually increases them.”