"Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense?"

As President Obama surrounds himself with children to further his campaign to relieve Americans of their Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms, some canny observers have recalled other political figures who have resorted to using children to sentimentalize their policies.

Jim Robbins, the brilliant lead editorialist at the Washington Times, reminds us of another, more salubrious response to governmental efforts to disarm the populace: Patrick Henry at the 1788 Virginia Ratifying Convention: “Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense?”

The answer, alas: “Yes, we are.” But the Founders didn’t stand for it then. Perhaps we won’t stand for an imperial president’s effort to abrogate the Constitution by executive order. Perhaps.