Did Augusta County just … declare war?

If you thought the Second Amendment sanctuary movement was about protecting gun rights, well, no.

Because, see, we’re on the verge of having ourselves a civil war.

This, we learned, from Mike Shull, who, the times being what they are, was able to get himself elected, and re-elected, to the Augusta County Board of Supervisors.

Shull, in a pro-wrestling-style promo at last night’s special BOS meeting at Stuarts Draft High School, clumsily conflated the American Revolution and Civil War as he made the case for declaring the county a Second Amendment sanctuary.

“Just as here tonight, think back 250 years ago when they were sitting there wanting freedom. They were fighting the Red Coats. The Democrats are the Red Coats that we’ve got to fight now,” Shull said, from excellent reporting in the News Leader, which I encourage you to read (and support, in the form of purchasing a subscription).

More from Shull: “I’m not advocating we go to the streets. We’ve had one Civil War in this country. And if we keep on, we gonna have another civil war.”

Yeah, wow.

Ahem. Now, for some context.

The Second Amendment was enacted by the framers to account for the lack of desire on their part to create a standing army, which largely stemmed from the lack of desire on their part to come up with the money to pay for a standing army.

Which itself was the result of there being a lack of desire on their part to really pay any outstanding bills.

Seriously, look it up.

That thing about wanting everything and not wanting to pay for it is deep-rooted in the American psyche.

Anyway, so, the Second Amendment. We’re too cheap to have a standing army, so, we need to let people, read: white males, keep their guns, in the event that the British invade us again, or maybe the French, or Spain, whoever.

That part about a well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state?

That wording is in there for a reason.

The Second Amendment absolutists find this truth to be inconvenient, naturally.

In any case, the reasoning for letting people, read: white males, keep their guns wasn’t so that people, read: white males, could up and decide to shoot legislators who passed laws they didn’t like.

Yeah, there are some who will tell you that, you know, Thomas Jefferson said something about how “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants,” and we’re talking Thomas Jefferson there, so, come on, he was Thomas Jefferson.

Consider, though, that Jefferson wrote that in 1787, two years before he was an eyewitness to the French Revolution, which so refreshed the tree of liberty with a wash of blood of patriots and tyrants that France went from being a monarchy to a dictatorship; and that Jefferson, later in life, made it a point to try to edit his letters in which he shared his prognostications about how well things were going to turn out for the French, so ashamed was he of his stunning naivete.

But here we are, in 2019, revisiting and repeating that stunning naivete, and if not codifying it into law, making it public policy.

And doing so based on a fundamental misread of the Second Amendment, per the framers.

Who, and this probably bears repeating, weren’t at all thinking, let’s arm the populace so that they can shoot us.

But, hey, at least we know what’s really going on in Augusta County.

All the fluff about people needing guns to hunt and protect themselves, yeah, right.

What it’s really about is being able to overthrow a duly elected government if the mood strikes.

Glad to have that cleared up.

Column by Chris Graham