This has been a frustrating week or so for the gun rights side. The Supreme Court quashed a lower court injunction last week allowing ATF to enforce its Frame and Receiver redefinition of firearms (“ghost gun” regulation) until the case can be decided in court.

Now the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals — doing everything it possibly can to avoid the embarrassment of pro-gun decisions — has asked for supplemental briefing regarding whether a challenge to California’s open carry ban should be heard en banc. They did that despite the fact that the state hasn’t filed a petition asking for an en banc hearing of the case.

That’s what prompted the tweet above. But think for a minute what’s really happening here and what’s behind it. We probably shouldn’t be surprised when government employees try to undermine a constitutional amendment that exists as a check on the power of, yes, the government.

The idea that the people can revoke the government’s monopoly on violence when it breaks our founding contract is, I believe, unique to our constitution. The Founders remain revolutionary even today, nearly 250 years later. And that scares the hell out of the bureaucracy.

It terrifies them so much, in fact, that they’ve spent most of the 20th century trying to gaslight the country into thinking the Second Amendment is really a “state militia right.” And if it can somehow be considered an individual right, it’s only really about hunting.

The Second Amendment recognizes and protects Americans’ individual and communal right of self defense. To the extent the Second Amendment refers to the government, it’s only in how it’s necessary to the security of a free state.

If the government is no longer free, that’s as much a threat to a “free state” as any foreign invader might be.

Think about that the next time you realize how hard politicians and government bureaucrats continue to struggle to keep the limits they’ve put on gun rights in place everywhere they possibly can, for as long as they can.