Donald Trump has surpassed himself in awful and false statements. His most recent was that if Hillary Clinton becomes president, she would appoint judges who would confiscate guns contrary to the Second Amendment and that those opposed have “other options.”

The implication: Someone would be justified in assassinating either Clinton or her judicial appointments.

The Trump apologists are working overtime to spin the statement. The Secret Service is not taking it lightly.

This whole rigmarole is based upon four falsehoods.

The first is Hillary wants to confiscate all guns. PolitiFact rates this as “False.”

Second, someone needs to lend Trump a copy of the Constitution. He says the Second Amendment can be changed by the right judges.

This is false. Article V of the Constitution requires any amendment be passed by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and ratified by a three-fourths majority of the states. The president plays no part in any of the proceedings.

Third, in D.C. v. Heller, the Supreme Court recognized the right of individuals to own guns for protection.

However, it also ruled: “Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”

Therefore, the passage of common-sense laws to promote public safety or require registration as Clinton proposes are not prohibited by the Second Amendment. As a result, it is entirely unnecessary to appoint “liberal” judges to “change” any laws. Congress just has to follow the Supreme Court’s guidance.

Fourth, Trump makes the erroneous assumption individuals have the right to take up arms against the government. This is a myth. No federal court recognizes this “right.”

This is treason as defined by Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution. Unlike the NRA, the framers of the Constitution were not sympathetic to armed insurrectionists. The first Congress passed the Militia Acts of 1792, less than a year after ratification of the Bill of Rights allowing the president to call up the militia:

“That whenever the laws of the United States shall be opposed or the execution thereof obstructed, in any state, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by this act, the same being notified to the President of the United States, by an associate justice or the district judge, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to call forth the militia of such state to suppress such combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed.”

James Peca is a retired government analyst living in Farmville. His email address is Jep315@gmail.com.