Today, I stumbled on a speech by Congressman Clay Higgins.  If only we had more like him, America would not be in the mess it is in. 

His website states " A committed Constitutionalist, Congressman Higgins believes in restoring the federal government envisioned by our Founding Fathers. Higgins believes in smaller government, less bureaucracy, free markets, a strong national defense and securing America's sovereign borders. From Morgan City to the Texas line, Higgins has sworn a sacred oath to protect and serve the people of South Louisiana. " 

And I like the sound of that.

I feel almost like I did the day I saw Donald Trump walk down the escalator and announce his candidacy for the presidency: incredibly excited and keen to see what the future held. I followed his campaign on RSBN and I have never missed a rally. ( Despite my being an Australian and having never visited America.) I envied the American people the leader they were about to have and I cried tears of joy when he won back in 2016. it seems like a lifetime ago... so much has changed.

But this article is not about President Trump; this is about Clay Higgins.How have I never seen or heard him before?

For those of us who are not in the states, here is a short excerpt from his webpage.

Captain Clay Higgins is a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives representing South Louisiana.

Raised on a horse ranch, Clay Higgins' South Louisiana roots run deep. After graduating from high school, he attended LSU and then went on to serve in the United States Army/Louisiana National Guard as a Military Police Officer, and he attained the rank of E-6, Staff Sergeant.

Higgins had many successful years in business but returned to uniform service as a street cop in 2004. He worked patrol, primarily night shift, and he was a well-known SWAT operator. Prior to joining Congress in 2017, Higgins is best known for his Crime Stoppers videos for the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office. The program was one of the most successful in the history of law enforcement. Most of the featured crimes were solved and what was most significant was that many of the suspects responded to "Uncle Clay's" message of redemption and turned themselves in. Captain Higgins continues to actively serve the Thin Blue Line retaining a valid Law Enforcement commission and his Louisiana State POST Certification.

As a veteran and highly decorated law enforcement officer, Congressman Higgins continues to protect and serve in the nation's capital. He is a member of the House Homeland Security Committee and the House Oversight & Reform Committee. His website is here

 He recently made a speech that is, in my opinion, one of the finest I have heard. I have tried to transcribe it below. But here it is in all its glory. So fitting for Independence Day.

A man that was not under criminal investigation nor under arrest? Would you do it? The red flag laws would? That's a yes or no, brother. I got five minutes to make an hour and a half statement here.

 If you cannot say yes, you would confiscate weapons from an American citizen that was subject to this law that my colleagues intend to push through this Congress. And you said in your statement that you would confiscate those weapons if an American was determined to be. Your quote, a threat to themselves according to that law determined to be is defined by an anonymous tip that an American citizen a threat to themselves, rather, you're a police commissioner, a thin blue line, brother, sworn to uphold the Constitution and you're saying you see those weapons?

I see that as a problem. I'm going to bring us back in time to World War II. America's population 140,000,000. 15 million American men came home from World War II with deep scars and significant skills. They bore the invisible wounds of war.

There were weapons everywhere.

We talk about mental challenges. My father was one of those men who was a Navy pilot in World War II. He came back from the war and built his family on the 7th of his eight children. I was born in 1961. We had guns everywhere.

There was virtually no regulation. Any child in the 50s could buy a weapon from any seller if Daddy sent them with the money. We didn't have mass shootings. It wasn't until 1968 in America that serial numbers were even required on weapons sold in this country. You order weapons to the Sears catalog by the mail in the attended a high school, a large rural school.

Virtually every vehicle in the parking lot was a pickup truck. And almost everyone had a rifle or a shotgun on the back glass and a pistol under the seat. We didn't have school shootings.

I began college. One of the jobs I had to work my way through college was as a carpenter. We restored historical buildings. We had to determine in the process of that work what was the original cuts of these homes, residential homes built 75, 85, 100 years ago. You could tell by the saw cut if it was a mechanical cut, an electric cut or a hand cut.

By such observations, we knew exactly how that house was originally built. To my amazement, as a young man beginning college in Louisiana, working, to my amazement, you know what I discovered, Madam Chair? You know what these houses did not have that were built 100 years ago in cities in America.

You know what they did not have, commissioner? Locks.

Locks.

Now, I ask you all what happened to that country, man? A country where homes were built in cities with no locks. A country where guns were everywhere, virtually not regulated at all. Where millions of Americans, 14 million Americans came back it's 11% of the population at the time after World War Two with incredible skills of war and weapons of war, as you call them everywhere.

But we didn't have mass shootings. And here we sit today where an entire once proud Democratic Party is presenting unbelievably, unconstitutional laws to press upon our nation. And we have a police commissioner that says he would go home to home and confiscate legally on weapons if he got a tip. Madam Chair, yield my speech. But I will not yield my opposition to these unconstitutional laws.

Well said Sir. Well said.