The American Civil Liberties Union used to be one of the more principled proponents of civil liberties in America. Their steadfast defense of the First Amendment rights of controversial organizations such as neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan earned it significant street cred among many politicos.
However, as Cam Edwards of Bearing Arms observed, the ACLU “always had a blind spot in defense of Americans’ individual rights; our right to keep and bear arms.” The ACLU has taken the conventional leftist view that the right to bear arms is a collective right as opposed to an individual right that is part and parcel of foundational American freedoms.
The civil liberties organizations has further demonstrated its incongruent stances on the Second Amendment after filing a Supreme Court brief on September 21 dealing with a New York gun control case. In this brief, the ACLU asserted that gun control legislation “reasonably furthers the peace and safety conducive to robust civic engagement, and therefore does not contravene the Second Amendment.” Put simply, the ACLU is arguing that infringing on the Second Amendment rights of lawful New Yorkers magically protects their ability to exercise their First Amendment right to free speech and lawful assembly.
The ACLU continued making its case as to why gun control somehow protects the First Amendment:
This is a case about the Second Amendment, but its resolution also implicates fundamental First Amendment values—the freedoms of assembly, association, and speech. States have many justifications for regulating the public carrying of weapons, concealed or otherwise. But one especially important justification is that such restrictions facilitate civic engagement, by promoting safety and reducing the chances that the disagreements inevitable in a robust democracy do not lead to lethal violence. Accordingly, in assessing the validity of New York’s regulation of the carrying of concealed weapons in public, the Court should give due regard to the state’s important interest in facilitating a wideopen public debate.
In the same brief, the ACLU argues that “states have every reason to believe that the open or concealed carrying of guns will chill the exercise of First Amendment rights by threatening the eruption of violence.” Such argumentation has been used to discredit any gun control liberalization reforms. The reasoning goes that an armed society will see heated arguments devolve into gun fights.
At the end of the day, the First and Second Amendments are equals in terms of their importance as civil liberties. However, the ACLU sees it very differently. Though it’s even a stretch to argue that the ACLU is a consistent civil liberties defender. They’ve done nothing to curtail Big Tech’s censorship of countless dissidents.
The ACLU is clearly just another appendage of the leftist managerial state that disproportionately policies right-wing behavior and works tirelessly to undermine American values. No well-meaning gun owner who believes in the Bill of Rights should donate a cent to this organization.
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