We already knew that Oath Keepers, the right-wing group of active and retired military servicemen and law-enforcement personnel who have declared they will not enforce laws they feel are unconstitutional, was a pretty extreme bunch. Just how extreme, however, was revealed on Thursday, when one of its top leaders declared that God gives you the right to disobey gun laws.
Alan Colmes was more than a little concerned about the Oath Keepers, and decided to invite the vice president of their New York chapter, John Wallace, on for a chat. Listen to the whole thing here. Wallace, a retired lieutenant colonel in the New York State Police, objected to a New York City ordinance that bars any long gun with more than five rounds. He also objected to the Safe Act, a state law that toughens the state’s already strict laws on guns. Colmes replied that while one can quibble about the specifics of a law, no right is absolute. He pointed out that individual citizens don’t have the right to interpret the laws–that’s the courts’ purview. Wallace replied that “my rights come from God,” and the government is supposed to protect those rights. He argued that the Second Amendment doesn’t allow for any laws requiring the registration of guns.
Colmes was having none of it, pointing out that under the Constitution, the courts decide whether a law is constitutional or not, not individual people. Wallace replied that there’s a way to get around it–if you choose not to comply with an unconstitutional law, you can get arrested and make a case out of it. However, when Colmes asked him where the Second Amendment forbids registration of guns, Wallace retorted that there’s nothing that says they have to be registered either. It’s hard to believe that anyone–especially a retired state trooper–can even suggest this so soon after the shootings in Santa Barbara and Oregon.
Colmes also took issue with Oath Keepers’ list of orders that its members have vowed not to obey. For instance, item #5:
We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty and declares the national government to be in violation of the compact by which that state entered the Union.
To Colmes’ ears, that sounded like Wallace and his friends wouldn’t lift a finger if a state decides to secede. Wallace replied that it was merely an expression that his colleagues will respect the 10th Amendment’s provision that those rights not enumerated in the Constitution are reserved to the states or the people.
Wallace’s appearance came just days after he got wind of a supposed bulletin from the New York Intelligence Center that linked Oath Keepers and kindred groups to recent shootings of police officers. Wallace called upon his colleagues to “remember your oath” and refuse to take part in “this conflict against honorable men and women who simply will not submit to a tyrannical lust for power by the political incompetence.” He also claimed the report was based on reports by “left-wing” and “Communist” organizations like The New York Times, Huffington Post and CNN. And yet, in the same breath, he says he isn’t an extremist. Yeah, okay.
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Darrell Lucus is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
