Wednesday April 5, 2013, while speaking at the Denver Police Academy during his visit to Colorado, President Barack Obama made an interesting statement:

“The opponents of some of these common sense laws have ginned up fears among responsible gun owners that have nothing to do with what is being proposed- nothing to do with the facts, but feeds into this suspicion about government.   You hear some of these quotes,

‘I need a gun to protect myself from the government.’

‘We can’t do background checks because the government is going to come and take my guns away.’

The government’s us.  These- these officials are elected by you.  I am elected by you,  they are elected by you.  I am constrained by you.  I am constrained by a system which our founders put in place.  This is a government of, and by, and for the people”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md3AWf-cP_A

President Obama is elected by the people and held back by the people.  What he does not seem to be able to fathom, or does not wish to say, is that our Constitution and the Bill of Rights is what is holding him back…not just a ‘system.’  The Constitution is a document which means as much today and is just as important as it was two hundred years ago when it was drafted in the eighteenth century.

Because of this constraining system which our founders set up we have not only a Constitution, but a system of checks and balances.  Under the Constitution the president cannot sign away the rights of our citizens or legislate.

“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

– U.S. Constitution, Amendment II

“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.”

–  Patrick Henry

Cross-posted on my blog politicalfireball.wordpress.com