If you’ve seen the movie Lone Survivor, you may recall when the new Navy SEAL stands before his platoon and, by memory, recites a traditional Frogman speech that begins with “I’ve been around the world twice and talked to everyone once.”  Though being heckled, he goes on to state that, “anything worth doing is worth overdoing and moderation is for cowards.”  The speech goes on and the movie depicting Operation Redwing unfolds for the viewer to watch.

I personally embrace the notion that “anything worth doing is worth overdoing and moderation is for cowards” because I think it sums up how our Founding Fathers felt when, in 1776, they declared independence and no part of their actions were moderate.  I say this because in recent generations we have allowed the Federal Government to trample upon the Second Amendment putting to shame the original intent of the Constitution. In particular, the current Administration has initiated relentless attacks upon this crucial Amendment by supporting reinstating a modified version of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban (AWB).  This is just one of many examples.  And at present, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) proposed a ban on the M855 ball ammunition (.223 or 5.56mm) that is commonly used in the AR-15 rifle platform.

This is symptomatic of a much larger issue: our society is falling asleep at the wheel and has taken for granted the reasons that our Founding Fathers believed every citizen has the right to bear arms.  We have been on a slippery slope since 1927 when the Federal Government restricted U.S. citizens ability to mail certain types of firearms, followed by the legislation passed in 1938 requiring gun dealers to obtain Federal Firearms Licenses.  In 1994, Congress enacted the Federal Assault Weapon Ban (AWB) which made restrictions on certain types of semi-automatic weapons and magazine capacity. The 10 year ban expired in 2004, and thus far has not been reinstated.

Outside of the context of this legislation being constitutional or not, the Federal Government is taking away our inherent and God given right to bear arms while quietly stockpiling its own arsenal across various Departments, not just the Department of Defense. I personally consider the Second Amendment as a critical and noble difference between the U.S. Bill of Rights and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. But as we legislate away the Second Amendment it is increasingly becoming difficult to tell any difference between the two. I begin to wonder the point of the Second Amendment after reviewing the plethora of restrictions and regulations for a private citizen to exercise his or her right, especially when one considers that the bulk of these rules do not apply to the entity (the Federal Government and its agents) in which the Amendment was put in place to protect us from.

America, the land of the free and home of the brave (or at least that’s the rhetoric), doesn’t seem so free when I can’t freely decide what firearm to use if I need to defend those assets and investments that money and insurance cannot replace — my life and the lives of my family and friends.

And now the Federal Government wants to dictate what type of ammunition I can use to protect my loved ones.  Should the ATF be successful with their proposed ban on AR-15 ammunition, then that will be another reason to question if America truly is the land of the free and home of the brave.

I have been around the world twice and I’ve talked to everyone once and have seen firsthand the oppressive, tyrannical societies in which many live.  Perhaps it is because I have fought to defend the timid and oppressed that I cherish our inherent right to bear arms as a free society.  Should this trend of ignoring the Second Amendment continue, we are not free, nor are we brave.

Originally Featured on The Dana Show.


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Contributed By Jared Ogden – Former Navy SEAL, Reality TV Personality, public speaker, and Founder/President of Phoenix Patriot Foundation.

For further discussion regarding this and more, please follow @JaredWOgden.

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