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Restore the Constitution Rally - 2010/10/30
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Jun 5, 2025
Rally to Restore the Constitution, Palo Alto Battlefield, north of Brownsville, Texas, Oct. 30, 2010. Jon Roland speaks on nullification, and Larry Pratt of Gunowners of America speaks on the right to keep and bear arms.
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introduce yourself again and it should says wreck record for record
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okay well I'm John Roland I'm founder and president of the
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Constitution Society I'm also the libertarian candidate for Texas Attorney General
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the day is October 30th 2010 and we're gathered here at the uh
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Palo Alto Battleground North of Brownsville Texas
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and what I like to do right now is to discuss my proposals for nullification I
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would work um on my website at constitution.org
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I have extensive materials on the subject if you click on political reform and
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then scroll down you'll see the link to uh nullification
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and then it have that as a page with other links I like to summarize it here today
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the basic plan is to get
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to establish a kind of super grand jury this will be a state level grand jury
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composed of 23 randomly selected citizens
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and he would have as its mandate to hear complaints
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about Federal user patients from Texas citizens
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that's all I would do it's not for the hearing complaints about crimes or
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you know other things that are just ordinary stuff just violations of the
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Constitution by federal officials or agents now
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I I I'll leave till later how the
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that panel would be impact would be selected I call it or
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as a preliminary name the federal action review Commission
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because it's not just an ordinary grand jury it would have the powers of a grand jury just subpoena Witnesses
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to conduct hearings but when it came time for it to present
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a report if it found that some action of a federal official
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was unconstitutional then
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the effect of that finding would be to require All State officials and agents
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and contractors to refuse to cooperate with that Federal action
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and it would encourage State citizens to also refuse to
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cooperate with it so what he would be doing is putting the
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entire state uh in opposition to that action to that
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usurpation you know what in effect what he would be doing is organizing the entire state to
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engage in Civil Disobedience now we've seen other examples of Civil
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Disobedience by States some successful some not so successful
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there have been a number of proposals concerning recent legislation particularly the Health Care Act
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but unfortunately most of those proposals are ill-conceived
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for example one of them would simply pass a bill
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in the state legislature making it a crime for a federal agent to collect an
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insurance premium well that won't work
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there are a lot of reasons why it won't work and get into that later but
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that is a simplistic approach to a very complex problem
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in general you cannot arrest federal agents for
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doing their job the only thing that would happen if you
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tried to do that is it would be immediately probably with
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an hour if the arrest was made removed to federal court and dismissed
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killing the killing the caves uh
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and as far as federal agents IRS agents enforcing uh
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the collection of health care premiums Congress shot down
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the the most obvious way to deal with that because it specifically forbade IRS
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agents to a apply Lanes or levees to anyone to collects the insurance
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premium you can't living they can't lean
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so you might ask well is there how they're going to collect an insurance premium if they can't Levy and they
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can't lean well the answer is that if they have your money from some other source
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let's say for example your employer withholds money
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and you apply for a refund they said oh this money is for the
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health insurance premium you've already paid it oh and by the way you owe us
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about eight hundred dollars which is about what's expected to be uh in unpaid taxes
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you're still short so if you try to sue them
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to say uh it's unconstitutional to you know collect his insurance premiums
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it says well wait a minute uh you have to under the law you have to
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pay all of your taxes and penalties and interest before you
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can sue to get your money back and by the way since uh you failed to
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pay 800 on your taxes not your insurance premium on your taxes
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we have imposed pretty soon and uh and and she thinks that it would be good to
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go ahead and do it over here is that okay to go ahead and get going it was recorded he's speaking oh good I didn't
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know that okay okay it was uh
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so the problem is there then now they can add
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let's say it started with eight hundred dollars short so you can run it easily
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run it up to eight thousand even eighty thousand in interest in penalties you've got to pay all of that
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plus your attorney's fees all to collect to get them to refund 800 bucks
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so they have thought about all these things uh the legislation that was proposed by
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Leo Berman just did not understand what they're up against
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and the lawsuit that was filed originally in Florida by McCallum
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and signed on to by 19 attorney State Attorney General
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also fail to be designed for that
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problem I it was the the lawsuit was written
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by a friend of mine uh
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who wrote it at a time before the bill was still in the house being debated and
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before it reached its final forum and they proceeded to try to litigate as
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though they were litigating the bill in the house and not the one that got enacted
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well we just got a decision in Florida they struck out all but two of the
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claims and those two will probably not survive or some of the reasons I've indicated
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if you're going to litigate and it's certainly worth litigating if you do it right you have to know what you're doing
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and none of these state attorney generals knew what they were doing
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um and I pointed this out to them
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hi Tony about to my friend David who drafted drafted the litigation
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and uh they're kind of been a fog as far as I'm
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concerned they have not thought through the legal strategy that it's going to take to
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really even have a chance of winning in court much or less actually doing so
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and there's no real chance of winning in court yeah how long have you been on a
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tournament I'm not an attorney I'm a legal historian yeah right
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but I do go to court with taking cases for example I uh filed an intervention I
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live like me Perry on the Texas redistricting case I was the only one with a proposal for
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redistricting that was not representative of the interests of one
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of the other two major parties yeah say that again well it was The
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Proposal the getting off the crack here but but that's important yeah that's important if the proposal was
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essentially to let the computers draw the maps with no human intervention or very little
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the computer programs are excellent Texas has developed the best computer
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software for the purpose in the country it's better than any other public
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software or any private software to turn it loose it can generate Maps
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and they're good maps and everyone is different
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so uh what I propose to do is just let it generate a bunch of maps and because
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human beings being what they are they want to have a hand in it I'll just give let's say generate a couple of hundred
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of them and let them strike out a few let's set a couple that are anomalous or
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really strange looking and then randomly select from among what's left and that's
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the map so no Democrats drawing Maps no Republicans drawing Maps no attorney
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generals going to court with the Republican map which I considered inappropriate
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uh bipartisan it would just be well it was true true non-partisan say bipart see
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there are two kind of gerrymandering there's partisans gerrymandering that tries to get Advantage for one party and
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there's by a bipartisan gerrymandering that tries to protect incumbents my plan does not protect incumbents but
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is this are you talking about your setting up some kind of an organization or a part of the state or something is
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it another layer of government bureaucracy name no the uh the
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legislative Council staff have this offer they just run the programs it's a
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simple matter to you know to to set it running I mean you can go in yourself if you know what you're
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doing Reserve time on the computer or the you know in Austin and draw your own
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Maps I've done that uh so uh it's certainly doable
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and it costs nothing really everything's in place but I discovered in the courtroom when I
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was discussing with this with the other litigants is that of course the Republicans wanted
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their map and the Democrats wanted the issue
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they knew they weren't going to get their math what they wanted was to have an issue
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that they could use in the next election well
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as a Libertarian that I'm not sympathetic to either of you I think what we need is a truly
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impartial method of drawing Maps if you're going to have single member
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districts and uh not let it be influenced by either party
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by incumbents by anything just a purely almost purely random process
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well almost everybody I have discussed this with including the litigants in that
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case agreed with me that I had the statesmanlike solution the only
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statesmanlike solution and because of who they were representing they couldn't
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support it all right they say politics is not going
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to let us adopt a statesmanlike solution like yours
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well that's why we need to support me the next time this comes up and it will
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because it's going to be the same thing the legislature is going to draw a map
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it's going to favor Republicans the Democrats are going to assume just like they have before is going to go to
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court I'm going to be an intervener have the same proposal I don't have to change
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anything but the dates yeah well of course the style it'll be a different somebody be Perry probably
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and uh but the Supreme Court itself so Justice
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Kennedy asked for a solution like mine
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he didn't say so in so many words because he didn't know what he was asking for but in the Jubilee era case in a
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footnote he said in effect you know we need something and what he was
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describing is what like I was proposing the problem is getting it to the Supreme Court
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and that's going to take money but if we can take this to the Supreme
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Court I think we may be able to end partisan and not bipartisan
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gerrymandering in this country once and for all so I have an organization it's called
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the Coalition for non-partisan redistricting and you go to constitution.org but look
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for selection and removal and you'll scroll down and you'll see a link to it
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okay so what do you what do you in the end of all this what well go to my website learn about it and
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then help me because we are now holding earrings on redistricting
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in various parts of cities in the Texas and I need other people to carry my
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proposal to the committee it's a joint committee
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now they're not going to accept it of course but I want to at least lay the foundation
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you know you know cover all the basins so we all have jobs
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so we all have jobs and uh go to my website learn about it then contact me and I'll be happy to put
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you to work amen good job sorry a little let me get back to
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nullification sir can I can I can I yeah I teach community
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some of this you need to keep it short and sweet because you're losing your audience
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well don't don't get lost well no it's not it's not bad it's that sometimes it's dragging on and so unique you need
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to hit us with what you got and tell us what to do and we'll be glad to do it okay well through the Nullification
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proposal is in the form of a bill
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to adopt an amendment to the Texas Constitution and I need people to go to their members
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of the State Legislature to get them to sponsor it
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now when you do that you're going to have to be able to explain it to them so what I'm doing trying to do is now is
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provide you with the the explanation you're going to have to to take to them no we're going to have them call you
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uh that's probably not gonna work sure no legislators only want to talk to
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their own constituents most time you don't want to talk to us either yeah well they don't want to talk
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to us but I mean and they don't want to talk to you unless you bring money or votes that's right so you need to show
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up in some strength or have a lot of people write them and phone them and fax them
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and you need to all be on the same page have the same message
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so that and if they ask you questions you have to be able to answer it you
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have to be able to provide the explanation that I'm providing to you now
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you can't call on me every time uh you run into trouble
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we have a website and if you study it learn it that should prepare you
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but there's no really good substitute for practicing explaining it to people
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speaking to people the way I'm doing it here so what you need to do is once
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you've read all this stuff is go to groups like this one and try to sell it to them
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and answer their questions and they'll have plenty of questions so that after after a while you after
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you're doing this a while then you'll be ready for the state legislators
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so it's a what the
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the Nullification commission would do is essentially hear complaints about Federal user
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patients and I discuss it here in this handout
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mobilize the entire state to resist but as it turns out and as I explained
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here not all federal user patients lend themselves to this approach
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because not all of them require the cooperation of anyone
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there are a lot of things the feds do that they can do without any help from anybody
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so a lot of what we're going to be doing in
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uh with a nullification commission is simply educating the public
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as to what is and is not constitutional so it'll inform them when they vote when
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they write letters when they attend rallies when they do all kinds of things
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But ultimately is to set them up for the next step
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which is constitutional amendments and I discussed that on that
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on that link from that website a lot of people say well the
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Constitution is straightforward anyone can understand it we just get back to
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the unconstitution as originally understood uh we'll be fine
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well unfortunately once the courts in particular and government
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in general has begun misinterpreting the Constitution
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those misinterpretations become entrenched you can't just suddenly insist on
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understanding the Constitution the way it was originally met because they're going to say well we
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don't care what it originally meant we've got this president this is the way we've been doing it now
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for 50 or 100 Years and we're not going to change if you want us to change you've got to
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amend the Constitution not to change it not to depart from what it originally
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meant but just to go back to what it originally meant
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the Bill of Rights we're clarifying amendments
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with the exception of the twenty dollar rule of the Seventh Amendment they did not change anything
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everything in the Bill of Rights is also in the original Constitution
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if it's properly understood but what a difference it makes to
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restate it in the way the Bill of Rights did today most people don't understand the
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original Constitution and how it means the same thing as the Bill of Rights they're constantly having it at the same
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time the Constitution was not going to be ratified without the Bill of Rights yeah that's what it comes down to yeah
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and but it it was to clarify what the original Constitution meant
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and what we essentially have to do now is to clarify a lot of the other terms
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of the constant original Constitution that have since become misinterpreted things like what does regulate mean what
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does commerce mean what is necessary and proper mean you know there are all these terms you
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know what is a jury what is a grand jury what is due process
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these are things that uh the courts have been allowing people to depart from
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Case by Case by case and because they don't want to read
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open all these old cases they say we aren't we're only going to go back to the last case
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and the last case hell this and yeah it might be wrong but it's better for our
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decisions to be predictable than to be right it's wrong we're getting ready to start
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up on the speakers over here okay so well let's uh hit the red button here and you have a chance to read what I've
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got here yes all right if you have further questions
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well it's great to be here in Brownsville with this group of uh the fine constitutionalists and I can't
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imagine a better way to bring to close this race I've been in for libertarian on Canada for governor of the state of
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Texas so thanks for having me here and I'm just just great to be here with a
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group of like-minded Liberty loving people yes I'm Kathy glass and I want to be
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your next Governor now maybe some of you didn't even know you had another choice in this race other than those two guys
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who spent 60 million dollars trying to persuade you that the other one is unfit for office well I think they're both
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right but why should you vote for me how would I be any better well I'm the only one in
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this race that understands our sovereignty our Texas 10th Amendment sovereignty and our individual
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sovereignty that's under attack we're in a battle for America and the
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Battleground is Texas but we are not battle ready because we have no
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effective leadership now this is salt and our freedoms that's coming at us from two different points
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two different kinds we've got the attack from our Southern border due to an
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insecure border and we've got this assault from the east from Washington DC
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to this Avalanche of unconstitutional Federal Acts I'm the only one in this race who understands these dual threats
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much less have the plan to a defeated and the will the guts to
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do so let me go through my
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step ahead of in front of the speakers let me go through my a four-point plan
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I want my campaign is based on first secure our border using our own
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Texas State guard not our National Guard because that can be nationalized but our
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state guard you know under our Texas Constitution one of the most important duties of the
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governor is as commander-in-chief of the Texas Military which includes the Texas
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state guard the National Guard and the Air National Guard so I chose the state guard because under our constitution it
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is their function to enforce Texas state law and repel invasions among other
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things and that's what we got going on down here at the border what's going on here is non-immigration it is not it's a
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violation of Texas law against trespass and other crimes and in some respects
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it's an invasion and that's why Rick Perry is derelict in his duty he's going
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around trying to give President Obama a letter lecturing the president white he
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is derelict in his duty well I got a letter and I've prepared it to give to Rick Perry and I had it in our debate uh
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given a total debate October 19th in Austin but Rick Perry didn't show up now that's something you should consider
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because if he won't face up Kathy glass how can he face up to the federal government and those thugs down on the
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borders so I still got that letter but I told him he was in dereliction of his duty as Texas commander-in-chief because
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he did not do what he can do and should do to secure that order using our own
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Texas State Bar so that's job one to get that border under control now not second
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part of my platform is to resist unconstitutional Federal Acts like Obamacare using the best tool available
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nullification that's just one of many things we have to do to restore our 10th
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Amendment sovereignty act like a sovereign state and reclaim our independence and speaking of
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Independence part three of my platform is get our physical house in order so
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that we can stand strong and independent of Washington financially and always I would cut the budget 50 that's one half
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and if that sounds drastic that's just where we were about 10 or 12 years ago which shows we can have effect of a
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functioning government at half the price also proves how fast government can explode under a supposedly conservative
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Administration we should improperate taxes and enfranchise taxes and eliminate taxpayer-funded services for
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non-citizens these are the things we have to do so that we will be prepared
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for not just what's here right now with our own budget but what's coming at us because of the financial storm that's
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sweeping the country and is going to get worse and worse there's going to be a day when those federal dollars just stop
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coming and we need to get ready for that and prepared by standing around two feet
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another thing part three uh well part four of my platform is death to the
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trans Texas Corridor and all the toll roads and all of its manifestations now
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we are told that that's dead but it's not those contracts are sitting on desk there's funding for it the all the legal
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mechanisms in place since we get past this election that's going through not just the I-69 Corridor that predict the
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35 quarter and that is an assault on our sovereignty
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secret deals with foreign companies to take half a million Acres of prime Texas
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land split our state into our country into sold out our sovereignty because we have
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non-compete clauses in these agreements that we have agreed that we will not build or even repair a road that would
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compete with these privately operated toll roads and I-35 is going to have
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five exits five in the entire state of Texas so they control when you get on
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when you get off and the Monopoly for what who you have to deal with while you're on there
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that won't happen so I tell folks if these are the things
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you want secure border fiscal sanity
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resistance to unconstitutional Federal Acts and death to the trans Texas corridor I'm not just another choice you
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have for governor I'm your only choice oh yeah Rick Perry may have said some
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things that sound similar but 10 years experience has shown us he doesn't mean
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it he won't do it tell your friends if they're thinking of voting for Rick Perry again
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they know they're voting for the man they wish he were and not the man that 10 years experience has shown him to be
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and that's a wasted vote anytime you vote for someone that you know not only does not share your goals
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but it's actively working against them you are wasting your vote
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I've heard it said that people like me think I would make the best Governor but
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in this race they're going to have to vote for the lesser of two evils well I don't know which one they're
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talking about which one they're picking but I say all it takes for evil to Triumph is for good men to vote for the
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lesser of two evils that's exactly what got us in this shade if we had started 10 years ago just voting for who we
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thought was right who is best for the job we wouldn't be in this dilemma we were constantly voting for what we think
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is the lesser of two evils but I don't know who's the lesser of two evils among the two top guys I think maybe it's Bill
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white because he at least would be ineffective he would have a Conservative Republican
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legislature to deal with they would grow a backbone and opposing we've seen that happen when
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you have divided government would not roll over for him like they do for Rick Perry so if that's your objective then I
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don't know they're choosing the right lesser of two evil I also heard people say well we're going to vote for a guy
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we don't like and don't want and then we're going to hold his feet to the fire well how does that for a way of thinking
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your government and how's it been working for you for the last 10 years where volume Thief fire holders did
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and you really want a governor that you have to watch like a three-year-old boy around a book or matches
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no vote for somebody that you don't have to watch because you know that they're going to be working for the things you
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prize things you want because if any party thinks they've got
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you in their Hip Pocket you're gonna be set upon
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oh you can vote and give Rick Perry everything he wants on November 2nd but
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the morning of November 3rd he still won't respect you
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we're coming down to the last of this race and that's showing I've had any
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policing is it eight percent but that was before the debate where I got some rave reviews so I think I may be in double digits now
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and who knows what can happen things can be surprising but even if I don't win
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I'll never be sorry that I did this because I'm doing what I can do to
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defend my country and my state and I asked everybody just think what your
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one vote means it's important to you how it's interpreted the message you send if
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you vote for the status quo then that's what you get you'll get what
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you got for the last 10 years or maybe worse because it didn't come against back in office and he's not going to run
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again or he will not have the uh problem of a voter opinion to hold him back we
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will see Rick Perry Unleashed and untethered and I don't think we're going to like what we see It'll be hello
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Gardasil hello trans Texas quarter goodbye sovereignty but a vote for Kathy
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glass even if I don't win if I just make a good showing well that's a vote for Change and change in the right direction
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changing direction of limited government constitutional government and if the numbers are big enough I say every vote
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is an arrow in my quiver because you want to see somebody hold somebody's feet to the fire I'm the one but you got to give me clap
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in the form of votes a good respectable showing what did they say after this election if we see that trans Texas
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quarter coming back and we see that border continuing to deteriorate I can call them out and I have some Cloud if I've had a good
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showing the polls Kathy glass gets two or three percent maybe they won't care so much what I have to say but Kathy
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Glatz gets 15 or 20 25 percent they'll care and that way I can continue to
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fight this fight because I'm not going away and I know you're not either because I say to the people of the Texas
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and all Americans in the world never Retreat Never Surrender thank you very
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much
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red miss you libertarian candidate for the 27th District U.S House of Representatives Mr Michigan
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Thanks Dennis a little feedback here
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as he said I'm Ed miss you I'm the third candidate for this congressional district
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tell you a little bit about myself and where I'm coming from
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I got into this race really started two years ago and I got into it
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because I was concerned about the direction of this country was going and our existing Congress was taking us
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downhill very rapidly I started out just trying to be
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a person to get people involved get them talking
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Cameron County particularly is politically pretty apathetic
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and I was trying to get people to wake up get involved and out of that
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we would have a candidate rise up and take the lead that we could support
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well I probably underestimated the apathy because we didn't get a candidate rise
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up but in all my stirring of the pot
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Mr fredroo who was the chairman of the libertarian party down here said you're the man that's gonna run
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all it took several months and a lot of Consulting
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with my wife talking to other people around the district before I agreed to accept the
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nomination and that's why I'm here now
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Mr Solomon Ortiz our incumbent has forgotten what his job is
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he's been there 28 years he listens more to special interests and
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party leadership than he does to you the constituents of the 27th District
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he gives you a lot that he says he gives you a lot he takes
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credit for more than he really does and there are people who down here who
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want to be in a nanny state and they're going to vote to keep him in there
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but those numbers are going downhill rapidly as people become more and more concerned
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now I've got a republican competitor in this race also
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when he was asked by the League of Women Voters in Corpus Christi to write out
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his description of his qualifications for the job
37:43
for a voter guide they were publishing that was this month
37:48
and these are his words he's over 25 years old
37:54
he's a U.S citizen and he's a resident of Texas that's the sum of his qualifications and
38:01
experience for this job and those were his words not mine
38:06
now he is also he'll tell you he is a lawyer but he got tired of being a lawyer and
38:14
quit for you know practicing law after a little while and that kind of shows a little bit of his
38:20
background and character because he is a trust fund baby and has never had to work a day in his life and lacks a sense
38:28
of commitment to what he's doing and then you got this guy
38:36
I'm not a politician I've never been a politician I have no interest in becoming a career
38:43
politician I'm a combat decorated Air Force Colonel
38:48
retired I then went to work in the private sector worked for a Fortune 500 company
38:57
and ended up as an executive in that company I have a master's degree in management
39:06
my pledge is to work for you not for any special interest and not for party
39:12
leadership when I go to Washington they only know three letters in Washington Rd and I I'm
39:21
not up there as a Libertarian I'm not up there as a constitutionalist party member I'm up there as an independent
39:28
from the libertarian party but I'm independent and and I'm
39:33
contending we need much more Independence in Washington we need to
39:39
Branch out so that we have a break in this gridlock we've got
39:44
in Congress I was very fortunate
39:51
and that I've been endorsed by the National Liberty candidate organization
39:57
that endorsement was given because they recognize my stance and
40:03
position on the Liberties of people on constitutional government
40:10
on sound money on free market principles
40:15
and a rational foreign policy
40:20
I'm very proud of those
40:25
and I will support all of those steps when I'm in Washington
40:31
I'm for much smaller government it has gone way too far too fast and for
40:39
every new job in the government sector is taking away the resources that should
40:45
be dedicated in the private sector for private sector jobs those government
40:50
sector people do not create money we off prosperity for this country they
40:57
don't create jobs for this country all they do is add to the bureaucratic
41:04
Maze and the over-regulation that people are being forced to see
41:10
I'm for severely cutting back on spending
41:17
we have to have a sound physical responsibility
41:22
and Congress that is created by spending cuts not by
41:28
increased taxation of people
41:33
thank you there are a few things in the way of
41:39
congressional operations that I will absolutely support
41:44
one is the enumerated powers act that has been brought up to Congress every
41:50
year I think for about the last eight sessions of Congress and it doesn't get out of doesn't get
41:57
out of committee to be voted on the floor I will co-sponsor that when it is
42:02
reinitiated this year next year and it will be re-initiated and I'll be glad to
42:07
sign on for a co-sponders now what that means if you don't aren't familiar with it
42:13
it means that every piece of legislation that is presented in Congress must have
42:19
a constitutional thread how is this justified in our
42:24
Constitution and if it's not you can't process that legislation
42:32
and for much smaller bills no more bundling lots of things all into one big
42:38
bill because it becomes comprehensive and incomprehensible
42:46
so let's have legislation that addresses one problem at a time
42:51
so it's clear it's understood and it's well defined
42:57
I'm for term limits but practically speaking we're not going to get an amendment for term limits out of
43:03
Congress because we're hitting them right where most of them live
43:10
so I'm I'm in favor of more people activity to enforce term limits Through
43:17
The Ballot Box that's the best way to do it
43:23
another thing that I am for and I know it's probably not you know re realistic
43:30
to suggest it but I think in the area of physical responsibility and getting our house
43:37
back in order Congress should set an example they should set an example by saying no
43:46
more congressional raises if the last year was a deficit year
43:53
the only way Congress can get a raise in their salary is if they have a balanced
43:59
budget and they perform to a balanced budget and then that raise is limited to the
44:07
CPI a consumer price index a lot of You Are are and like myself or
44:16
in Social Security we're not getting a raise in Social Security again because it's tied to the
44:23
CPI the CPI is not a realistic indicator of
44:29
the cost of living all of you that go to the store to buy groceries know that cost of living is
44:37
way up but the CPI is way down if we tie salaries to CPI maybe they'll
44:45
straighten that out so yes
44:51
so that's really where I'm coming from folks I would appreciate you considering me
44:58
for a vote if you don't know enough about me please look up my website admission.com and
45:04
learn more and ask questions and I know that new congressman
45:11
are said to be looking at number one reelection when they go in there
45:17
I'm not gonna do that I'm going to look at discharging my congressional responsibilities to the best of my
45:24
ability and if I do that well re-election will take care of itself and
45:31
if I don't do that well I wouldn't ask you to reelect me anyway thank you very much
45:41
the extreme honor for me this is Mr Larry Pratt Gun Orders America the Executive Vice President and a very good
45:49
speaker please pay attention thank you thank you
45:54
Dennis thank you so much for putting this together for inviting me down here
46:01
I'd like to uh shame the media is not still here because I like to say something that
46:06
kind of makes their head explode we were at an armed rally
46:11
on April 19th which the media thinks is Timothy mcveighday actually
46:19
since they were all graduates of government Schools they're not likely to know that that's the day that most
46:25
Americans recognized was the beginning of our war of independence Lexington and Concord
46:30
and the idea of a bunch of men running around like many of you are with guns
46:37
it's very troubling to the ruling class well it was troubling to George III also
46:45
we um had the rally and I was
46:50
given the honor of speaking to the group and I pointed out that something I want
46:55
to say today we are in a war and
47:01
the other side knows that we're in a war I'm not sure maybe our side is beginning
47:07
to come to an awareness of the fact that we're in a war but they started the war
47:14
and this war is total they want our guns obviously as did
47:21
George III when he banned the importation of guns and ammo and other things of the sort
47:27
they want our money clearly their only solution to a problem is to raise taxes
47:33
they want our land they're increasing regulation and restriction on what we
47:38
can do with our land they want our kids they don't they don't want us to have any input
47:44
whatsoever in their education and basically they want everything we have
47:51
you can't even start a business in this country without asking for some bureaucrat for permission
47:57
and it strikes me that's a little odd that since there are employees and we're
48:04
The Sovereign We the People have established this government and
48:09
we're the boss but they don't look at it that way hopefully they're going to get their
48:15
first lesson in what I think is a decade-long fight to restore to restore
48:21
the Republic we're not even if we like the direction of many of the elections
48:26
that occur this Tuesday coming we're not going to be able to get at all
48:32
of them that need to be gotten that and there's going to be some that are going to forget even if they knew when they went in and we're gonna have to go deal
48:38
with them all over again this is something that's going to require us to be vigilant for a long
48:45
long time because that's what it's going to take to restore our Republic the idea
48:51
that we have to ask for a bureaucrat's permission or perhaps some elected official
48:57
permission a court judge or the sheriff before we can carry a concealed firearm
49:05
and in a state like Texas where we can't even carry a handgun openly
49:10
has to be concealed with their permission certificate that's outrageous
49:16
the guns to protect my life they they tell us what we got to keep guns from falling into the wrong hands well where
49:23
has that ever worked District of Columbia had a gun ban England has a almost total gun ban
49:29
they got gun bans in lots of places of the world have they licked crime last time I checked where you have gun
49:37
bans you have more violent crime than where people are at least to some extent
49:42
able to carry guns and Vermont and Alaska and now Arizona require no permit whatsoever
49:50
you're able to carry openly or conceal anytime you want
49:55
that's the way to go
50:01
I really think that even as a gun issue education needs to be on our agenda
50:08
because that's where there's so much brainwashing of kids I I was in the
50:14
airport yesterday and I was listening to a couple of 30 year old I think they were sisters
50:19
and one of the flight was coming down here and then right next to it was like gate a and gate B uh was going to
50:25
Guadalajara and this one lady said is that in the United States
50:33
really somebody 30 years old don't even know we're going on how did I just living in
50:38
this part of the country I I think that's pretty astounding
50:44
naturally they don't know what the First Amendment says when Christine O'Donnell was challenged on that
50:51
by a Wolf Blitzer of CNN and
50:56
he said American voters want to know her proper answer would have been right then to say Wolf Blitzer
51:03
you don't know what American voters want to know otherwise you'd have somebody looking at your program
51:09
but you don't have any ratings anyway he asked her about something that
51:14
got into the First Amendment and she made the point that the separation of church and state is not in the First Amendment the law students groaned
51:21
because they know it's in the first event I'll tell you what I have yet to talk to a lawyer who says
51:29
that he ever read the Constitution when he took constitutional law and
51:35
that's why they didn't understand what Christine O'Donnell was saying
51:41
that's how bad it is in the schools well if we don't know the First Amendment get guess what we don't know what the Second
51:47
Amendment is either and they'll still be propounding in those classrooms that
51:53
it's some sort of a collective right and that people can't be trusted with guns forget the Supreme Court has sort of
52:00
kind of started on a recognition that it's an individual right that's not what's going to come down in
52:06
the classrooms and so when these kids come out to vote not only will they not not know where Guadalajara is they're
52:13
not going to know what their rights are they'll think that their rights are right to a free meal a free house a free
52:21
medicine those are their rights not the right to be free
52:27
and to have the government limited to protecting that freedom that's what it's supposed to do and nothing more
52:33
well we're gonna see what happens in this new
52:41
Congress I know that the head of the Second Amendment caucus in the house is representative Paul Brown from Athens
52:48
Georgia and we were talking a few months ago and he said you know
52:54
if my party regains control of the house I think I might just introduce a bill to
53:00
repeal the Bureau of Alcohol back on fireworks now that's something we need to get a vote on
53:06
could be win loser draw a recorded vote would then give us a very important tool
53:13
for the forthcoming elections and hopefully we're going to see a lot
53:18
of other bills to repeal a lot of other agencies in Washington because it's hard to find any of them that fit within the
53:26
18 enumerated powers in Article 1 Section 8.
53:31
and certainly gun control is not there so any piece of federal gun law that they want
53:36
to repeal is just fine with me not only do they not work they certainly are not
53:42
constitutional now one of the things that I have been very encouraged about is the the growth
53:48
of willingness of states to interpose themselves between
53:53
Washington and their own folks the last time this was really tried in a
54:00
significant way was in the run-up to the war of Lincoln's aggression and
54:06
in the North I think it's correct to say all of the states passed legislation saying that
54:13
it would be illegal to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law which in fact was not
54:19
constitutional in spite of what the Supreme Court had said in their state and so when uh in one one
54:27
case was very interesting fugitive slaves had been apprehended by a federal Marshal in the good old days
54:34
we didn't have Federal jails he was in a local jail and that was violating the law and that incensed because that's
54:41
specifically what was prohibited by the law so a newspaper editor not even having
54:46
time to print a newspaper went out and caused an alarm and got people riled up and aware of what was
54:53
going on and they went into the jail and freed the slave and that led to
54:59
two series of litigation for state and federal laws that supposedly have been
55:05
violated the end of the matter was when they finally got him convicted on the Fugitive Slave Law the second go-around
55:13
there was a writ of habeas corpus issued by the state supreme court
55:20
making sure that the newspaper editor didn't serve any time in the jail and that was the end of the matter
55:27
so it doesn't matter what the Supreme Court says because they're not the supreme law of the land you and I as
55:33
voters are the supreme law of the land we the people and that's the way we're supposed to resolve a constitutional
55:40
issue in The Ballot Box and so when states began to to get a
55:47
little uppity lately it as far as I can tell started with a real ID act which would have made a national ID card out
55:54
of our driver's licenses when 12 States maybe more now
56:00
enacted legislation saying we'll put our bureaucrats in jail if they even think about sending that data
56:07
that might be put on that card to Washington as a result it's been over
56:13
four years now and the feds have not invoked the sanctions that they might have which of main concern perhaps the
56:19
most of us would be couldn't buy a gun with a driver's license couldn't get on a plane with a driver's license from
56:25
that state would it would say it might have been and the feds have just said okay never mind so there's obviously a
56:33
strength in numbers well that gets interesting because already eight states have enacted a
56:39
federal a Firearms Freedom Act if the gun is made in the state identified as such and stays in the state no federal
56:46
firearms laws apply now Eric Wyoming has an interesting twist in theirs it's the
56:53
same as the other states but it also says that if a Fed tries to impose federal law in contravention of state
56:59
law that's an offense that could get him 365 days in jail
57:04
if they had made it one more day a conviction even if you never served a
57:10
day but the conviction have taken away as gun rights under federal law
57:15
the feds are probably not going to like that they're going to try to the way they did with Lon horiuchi the murderer
57:20
from Randy Weaver's family out in Idaho at
57:27
Ruby Ridge they'll try to move it to Federal Court the point is if that federality comes back into Wyoming after
57:34
he's been convicted that's another offense under state law there too it's going to be tough to be a federal Thug
57:41
with States doing things like that there ought to be a law yeah it's called the
57:46
Constitution so what Gun Owners of America is going to be doing the NRA doesn't want to support these laws
57:52
they've told legislators we don't support it they didn't say they opposed it either they just don't want to get
57:59
behind it but we're going to be asking legislators to have a Wyoming plus one type of
58:05
provision and if we get a dozen states or more that enact that kind of
58:10
legislation you know what I think it's going to be harder and harder to enforce federal gun laws that's the idea of course
58:19
there's another approach that can also be taken Virginia is one of the states that said no to Obamacare
58:25
now one of its Provisions says that if you are being harassed by the feds and they
58:31
try to get a lien on your property no Virginia Sheriff under that law is able to place that lien on your property
58:39
and I was talking to the legislator that got that through and I said that's all well and good but what about my money or
58:46
my company's money that's in a bank account all they have to do is go online Clickety click and there goes my money
58:53
real easy well there's an answer to that I've got a bill this year I'll have it again next year to have a State Bank
59:00
outside the federal system just like North Dakota and when your money's there there's not a thing the federal rallies
59:07
can do because they have no jurisdiction foreign
59:14
you know it's it's really kind of exciting to see that there are especially at the state level
59:19
legislators who were looking for ways to kick Uncle Sam right in the knee
59:25
well somebody said maybe higher but I didn't you know they're we're in polite
59:31
companies so let's let's not go there as long as we stop them it doesn't matter where we kick them let's we can agree on
59:37
that now so these are some of the things that
59:43
we're going to be working on at gun Hunters of America and I guess just as a as a wrap I'd like to explain what our
59:50
philosophy is of lobbying and what our philosophy is in in federal
59:56
elections that is primarily what we get involved in to the extent that we have resources and that is
1:00:03
we don't think the system as it is should be respected it's an illegitimate
1:00:10
system that's way outside the bounds of the Federal Constitution and the NRA and
1:00:17
a lot of other groups it's not just the NRA look at the system as a given that we
1:00:23
can't change it so we just have to have access to it so we can be a player you're probably familiar with the
1:00:30
biblical account of when Christ went into the temple and he made a cat of nine tails and drove out the money
1:00:36
changers because what they were doing was illegitimate the standard lobbying approach in
1:00:41
Washington would be to say hey you didn't let me know this was going on I
1:00:46
need a place at this table and if he'd have been mad at him at all it would be because they owed him some back part of the cut
1:00:53
now we think the table is filled with ill-gotten items and it needs to be
1:01:00
overturned just as it was in the temple that day and we hope that we're going to
1:01:05
have enough folks with kind of nine tails that they're either going to clear off the table and reset it
1:01:10
constitutionally or we're going to reset them
1:01:17
and when you know so that's that's really the difference whether you are part of the whether you're suffering
1:01:22
from the Stockholm syndrome and assume that the best way to survive this kidnapping is to go along with whatever
1:01:28
my wants to do you may remember Patty Hearst was kidnapped decades ago and she
1:01:36
ended up robbing banks with her with her kidnappers she had so fallen into the Stockholm syndrome and I guess
1:01:43
psychologically it may be understandable it's a it's a survival technique in the short run
1:01:50
but when you think that way in politics you end up perpetuating the system which
1:01:56
is killing us it's strangling us it's enslaving us so hopefully the message
1:02:02
this fall is going to be Congress you're fired
1:02:07
and hopefully if they don't get it those that manage to get elected will do the
1:02:13
same to them next go around until they finally understand that we the people
1:02:19
are the boss we're going to carry a gun wherever we want even on a school perish
1:02:24
that thought like we might even be able to shoot a Muslim terrorist that wants
1:02:30
to do something like was done over in Russia where about 300 people including about half of them kids were murdered
1:02:37
because nobody had a gun all the guns were on the outside that didn't do much good
1:02:43
we got to be able to defend ourselves at any time that's why we need to be able
1:02:48
to carry a gun at any time and if somebody wants to carry it openly and some socialist ruling class wets their
1:02:56
pants that's okay we'll get them it depends but let's just not succumb to
1:03:02
that way of thinking the watchword is Constitution is individual liberty
1:03:08
including markets including carrying guns and an armed people are much more
1:03:14
likely as George III found out going to be able to protect those freedoms than it disarmed people so thanks for coming
1:03:21
here with your guns today
1:03:32
reduced Mr John Roland libertarian candidate for State's Attorney General of Texas
1:03:46
I am the libertarian nominee for Texas Attorney General
1:03:52
and to understand why I'm seeking that office it's important to understand
1:03:57
what the Office of the Attorney General can do and what it cannot do
1:04:04
the Attorney General cannot do all the things that a lot of people think it
1:04:10
should be able to do or would like it to do I get a lot of people calling up on my
1:04:17
positions on what are essentially legislative issues the Attorney General doesn't get to pass
1:04:24
all legislation all he gets to do is enforce it however how he enforces it can make all
1:04:32
the difference in the world for example there's a statute
1:04:38
that requires the state the Attorney General essentially
1:04:43
to represent whistleblowers as well as perhaps their agencies if the
1:04:51
Whistleblower is suing the agency now you may ask how can the Attorney
1:04:57
General come in on both sides of an issue and their answer is he can
1:05:03
one of the jobs of the Attorney General is to make sure that all of the key
1:05:09
arguments are well represented is not up to him to try to weigh the
1:05:16
scales of Justice or to try to talk to the judge and Chambers and get him to you know just
1:05:24
decide the case one way or another his job is to present the best Arguments
1:05:30
for all the positions on which a decision is needed and that would include the
1:05:36
whistleblowers I wish there have been several who have not been represented
1:05:43
but one of the things that the Attorney General can do that he very seldom does
1:05:51
is to open up a grand jury to complaints
1:05:58
from citizens it will be ver right now Local District
1:06:04
Attorneys pretty well served as the gatekeeper for grand juries
1:06:12
they stand in the way of any citizen trying to bring a complaint to it
1:06:19
and very often those complaints are about official misconduct
1:06:26
so one of the things that I would do as Attorney General because I cannot as the current Law stay
1:06:34
says actually initiate a
1:06:39
criminal case against a local public official
1:06:45
the D.A is charged with doing that but what I can do
1:06:51
is to open the grand jury to a complaint from a citizen
1:06:57
and then arrange to get a special prosecutor appointed which of course could be someone from
1:07:04
the AG's office now that might require going all the way up
1:07:10
to the Texas Supreme Court to bypass the opposition that would
1:07:17
undoubtedly develop in lower courts especially if the grand jury is
1:07:24
investigating uh my misconduct on the part of perhaps the judges themselves or
1:07:31
their cronies there's a lot of official misconduct
1:07:38
it is a serious problem most official corruption begins at the local
1:07:46
level local government is the incubator
1:07:51
of public corruption from which it spreads to the state level and then to the federal level
1:07:59
the local level is a level at which it needs to be nipped in the bud but all too often people are
1:08:06
derelict in their duty to supervise their local officials
1:08:11
they think it's okay to put out a request for proposals for some public expenditure expenditure
1:08:20
for which only one candidate can qualify probably the friend of some public
1:08:27
official maybe his brother-in-law or something of that sort
1:08:32
uh one issue that comes of a lot in this part of the Texas is discrimination
1:08:39
against minorities well I've examined how this process unfolds
1:08:46
and it is not so much discrimination against minorities as against
1:08:52
non-cronies is discrimination for cronies
1:08:59
and if minorities are not cronies they're going to feel discriminated against
1:09:06
I once had for example a software package for local government
1:09:12
I couldn't give it away people wouldn't take it for free
1:09:18
because they wanted the money to go to somebody's brother-in-law literally in that in one case
1:09:25
so that's the kind of thing the attorney general has to be prepared to
1:09:31
investigate he has General supervisory authority over County and municipal government
1:09:39
as do grand juries the grand jury they're kept so busy with indictments
1:09:45
in Harris County they barely have 10 minutes to consider each indictment
1:09:50
that they don't have the opportunity to examine anything else
1:09:55
so one of the things I would be pushing for is to have grand juries set aside a
1:10:01
certain amount of their time to supervise public administration
1:10:09
now changing the subject we had a discussion earlier about nullification
1:10:15
and my proposal for a nullification commission a kind of
1:10:21
uh super grand jury which would hear complaints from
1:10:26
citizens about misconduct by federal officials and if it found that
1:10:33
the federal official had violated the Constitution it would trigger
1:10:39
non-cooperation by the entire state every state official every agent every
1:10:46
contractor and he would urge citizens to also refuse to cooperate
1:10:53
now I pointed out that one of the problems with other proposals for nullification
1:11:01
is that they really don't understand the legal process is involved
1:11:09
he was mentioned earlier about the problem of removal to federal
1:11:15
court of any attempt by a state to impose criminal penalties on a federal
1:11:21
agent this does not occur after the State
1:11:26
Trial has taken place the removal will most likely take place
1:11:32
within an hour of him being arrested before he's even arraigned
1:11:39
that immediately stops All State action the state is
1:11:45
stopped in its tracks the federal court takes it over and will
1:11:50
probably dismiss it within a day
1:11:55
so there is no opportunity to arrest Federal officials as a way to
1:12:02
try to get the federal government to stop just
1:12:08
usurping the Constitution we have to be more creative
1:12:14
and that mostly consists of non-cooperation civil disobedience
1:12:20
and sometimes that has to be done in very clever ways because in many cases the federal
1:12:26
government does not need our cooperation
1:12:32
our incumbent attorney general joined 19 other state attorney generals in a suit
1:12:39
filed by the Attorney General of Florida against the Health Care Act
1:12:46
the suit was drafted by a friend David Rifkin for the bill as it had existed before it
1:12:55
was finally voted on it was expected that there would be the
1:13:01
power of the IRS to apply levees and liens to collect these Insurance
1:13:08
mandates well Congress anticipated that and specifically
1:13:15
removed from the IRS the authority to Levy or lean to collect those Insurance
1:13:21
mandates the money can still be collected because there are other ways the federal
1:13:27
government can get a hold of your money but when you try to get the money back
1:13:34
which is the only thing that the law allows for currently you'll discover that
1:13:42
they're going to go after you for a deficiency on not on the insurance
1:13:47
mandate but on other taxes and
1:13:52
probably Levy all kinds of Interest penalties and so
1:13:57
forth running up your bill to a huge amount which under the law you have to pay first before you can sue to get your
1:14:05
money back and the amount in question is only probably going to be about eight hundred
1:14:10
dollars so uh the health care bill is an excellent
1:14:17
example of what I mean by government by indirection
1:14:23
is very cleverly designed to force employers out of the business
1:14:29
of providing Health Care insurance to their employees and insurance companies out of the
1:14:36
business of selling health insurance after a few years
1:14:41
we will discover that there is no funding available for
1:14:47
medical care except the federal government
1:14:53
now I don't know how many of the proponents of the health care bill
1:14:59
understand how this will work I'm sure a few of them do
1:15:06
the key is that if you don't understand the secondary tertiary what are an area
1:15:13
effects of how things are going to unfold down the line in the chain of causation
1:15:19
you're not going to know how to intervene to prevent it
1:15:26
the attorney general has to be able to make good decisions about the way he
1:15:31
litigates when he signed on to that Florida litigation
1:15:37
he was signing on to a defective suit
1:15:43
and his opponent the Democratic opponent rightly labeled it a loser suit
1:15:49
and it is the only trouble is she has loser suits of her own she wants to sue Wall Street
1:15:56
well most of what she wants to do is also legally defective
1:16:02
neither one of my appointments opponents really understands the law
1:16:08
well enough to know how to conduct a well thought out lawsuit
1:16:14
and I'm not even a lawyer I'm a legal historian but I've been up against
1:16:21
my Republican opponent in court and you can review the litigation
1:16:27
yourself and ask yourself who in that courtroom who among the parties
1:16:33
understood the legal issues so if you haven't voted already or if
1:16:39
you have friends who haven't voted already I ask you to vote a cast a vote for John Roland for a Libertarian for
1:16:47
attorney general remember when you cast a vote what you're doing is influencing public
1:16:53
policy a vote for one of the two major parties is very unlikely to have any effect on
1:16:59
public policy regardless of the outcome it's not going to determine the outcome
1:17:05
the odds of a single vote affecting the outcome are infinitesimal
1:17:11
but if we could get eight ten fifteen percent or more
1:17:20
for the libertarian candidate the two major parties would be falling over each other to try to become more
1:17:27
libertarian now whether they would be sincere in that remains to be seen but
1:17:33
at least it would shift the whole direction of public discourse and I would rather have people arguing
1:17:40
about how best to be libertarian than about how the best of your socialists
1:17:46
so thank you for hearing me today uh if you have any further questions I have
1:17:52
handouts and back there on my notification proposal and uh my website
1:17:58
and one main website for the candidacy
1:18:03
j-o-n-r-o-l-a-n-d Dot o-r-g and if you're interested in what else I've been up to if you go to
1:18:12
j-o-n-r-o-l-a-d.net you can see on the site I prepared for a run for the U.S Senate
1:18:19
if you want to see what a repeal of all got federal gun control legislation
1:18:24
would look like you can find a bill which I've already drafted that would do that
1:18:30
no one has ever tried to introduce a bill like that before two years from now if I run for the U.S
1:18:38
Senate and get elected that's one of the first bills that I would introduce
1:18:44
but in the meantime it's very important for people like you to know what a bill
1:18:50
like that would look like because you need to be hitting your members of Congress and saying hey I
1:18:57
found this bill over here to repeal all gun control legislation why haven't you
1:19:02
introduced it okay thank you
1:19:16
foreign
#Constitutional Law & Civil Rights
#Firearms & Weapons