Protecting the Second Amendment is Protecting the First

February 18. 2025 by Jaochim Osther

The American conservative is no stranger to the topics of free speech and the right to bear arms. This familiarity may make it tempting to glance at the title for John Zmirak’s book, No Second Amendment, No First, and assume that there may not be much to learn. That would be a huge mistake.

Zmirak’s book is a foundational read for the constitutional conservative who wonders why with every passing year the Left is taking greater aim at these two particular Amendments, and what the everyday American can do to counter these efforts.

Zmirak describes his work as an “attempt at restoration, at reweaving the ancient tapestry of truths that made our Republic possible and carried it through many crises up to the present.”

The book certainly lives up to his intent.

No Second Amendment, No First is divided into three parts. In the first section, which is aptly titled “How the Biblical Worldview Gave Way To a Progressive Hive Mind,” Zmirak sets the stage by investigating the radical lurch of secularism that threatens the first two Amendments.

The Judeo-Christian worldview that enabled self-governing and was foundational to the development of the Constitution has deteriorated at the expense of secularism. Zmirak uses the Second Amendment “as the test case, the prime example, of how our political masters are confiscating our rights in the name of protecting us from ourselves.”

Zmirak’s style is marked by clear writing and piercing wit, which is likely why the second part of the book is named “Rules for Rational Christians” as a direct contrast to the Saul Alinsky’s infamous Rules For Radicals.

The right to self-defense against despotic governments or tyrants is tied to the assumption that a human life has value. The value of life is derived from a Biblical perspective, and Zmirak uses these chapters to illustrate that this is the “proposition on which America is built… every liberty we cling to, each institution we value, flows from that assertion.” This is why we have the right and the duty to protect ourselves and others.

The most effective arguments for the First and Second Amendments start with the principles and experiences that led the Founders to codify them, and Zmirak articulately unfolds this in Part 3 of No Second Amendment, No First.

“Freedom in the sense we take for granted, based on individual rights, arose only in the West, and only the Christian West. That’s not an accident.”

A thick thread is revealed that is grounded in Biblical revelation, flows through the Middle Ages and Reformation periods, and up through the Mayflower Compact before settling in the script of the Constitution and more specifically in the Bill of Rights.

Ultimately, Zmirak provides the American conservative, whether Christian or not, with a far deeper understanding of the First and Second Amendments. No Second Amendment, No First is also a clarion call for restoration of the first principles that made America great -- a beckoning for the country to return to the source that makes it the “Land of the Free” -- a Biblical worldview.

Joachim Osther is a freelance writer focusing on the intersection of culture and Christianity, and a contributing commentator at The Stream.org. Osther is also a contributor to RaymondIbrahim.com, chronicling the relevance of historical clashes between militant Islam and the West.