Please welcome Jordan Whitaker as our latest contributor to the GSL blog and GunNews.
Here’s a short bio on him:
I am a 30 year old father of three from across the river in Missouri. Since leaving military service (US Army Infantry) in 2008, I have been employed as the Pastor of Dover Baptist Church in LaGrange, MO.
I have enjoyed owning guns, shooting guns, hunting, and all things outdoors since childhood. Politically, I am officially independent, but I almost always vote Libertarian unless I personally know and respect a candidate of another party.
Although hunting is very important to me, the second amendment holds a higher meaning for me than simply sport or a good meal. I believe in the concept of natural rights, endowed by our creator and inalienable. The Bill of Rights enumerates a few of these rights that the founders thought were most likely to be threatened by an over-reaching government, but in no way does the Constitution or any of its amendments grant me any of these rights.
They are mine by virtue of my personhood, as long as I can hold onto them. This is where the Constitution and Bill of Rights comes into play as a contract between the government and the citizens of this country, limiting the powers of government relinquished to them by the people and guaranteeing the natural rights of every American citizen.
The second amendment is the fail-safe of this agreement. The existence of a well-armed militia comprised of the whole of the able-bodied citizenry is the check to any government foreign or domestic that would wish to infringe upon our God-given liberties. My right to keep and carry personal defensive weapons is the final protector of my life, liberty, and property against first the common criminal, and ultimately against all forms of tyranny.
I am not a resident of Illinois, but the entire reason I picked up your publication in the first place is because gun laws in Illinois do have a profound affect on my life. I often work and almost always shop in Quincy. My wife is employed at Blessing Hospital in Quincy, where she usually gets off from her shift after midnight. Although we are both legal concealed-carriers in our home state, Illinois disagrees with our right to do so, and therefore leaves us vulnerable in some of our most questionable situations. I would love to see this change, and I am encouraged by the support legal-carry seems to have in the western counties.
Could you pass my email along to Pastor Whitaker and ask him to contact me please? I’d like to converse with him outside of the article comments section.
Thank you,
Craig