Yesterday President Obama signed an executive order regarding guns and regulations of guns. Why is that so significant. Executive orders have been signed before, gun regulations have been put into play before, so why is this so news worthy?

One could argue it is due to the recent shootings at schools and the public outcry for tighter regulations as a solution to see these incidences reduced or eliminated. But why this shooting? Why now? This is not the first or worst shooting in our nations history at a school, nor was it even the first shooting that month.

Any opinions will be given as to why this executive order is noteworthy to the media and to the general public. I believe answer is that this order came in a time and in the manner it did as a sign to the faithful of what is kissing from the America. God is kissing from America, and the more God disappears from America the less we will have any liberty to enjoy.

I was listening to a new podcast, The Good Word, that features LDS Authors and their writings. The guest on this episode was Timothy Ballard, author of The Covenant. In the interview the author shared his position that liberty is the way to growth and development. You cannot force people to improve or to be better. It is contrary to logic and the gospel and plan of salvation to limit freedom. I won't go into how that ties into his book, but I encourage you to listen to the episode should you be interested. Sufficient to say, the book shows that throughout the history of the United States, there are evidences of individuals achieving greater levels of freedom and deliverance when we follow the principles of this covenant. When the people have forgotten God, they lose their freedoms.

When I see an legislation, or in this case and executive order, that significantly reduces the clear and distinct natural rights that come to each individual through simply being alive, rights articulated through the constitution, I look to how we as a people are not keeping this implied national covenant. How are we measuring up to principles of honesty, and charity? The over simplified answer is, we are not. While many are doing so individually, the nation as a whole are not.

I am concerned particularly with Barack Obama's administration as it is his administration that seems to be finding more and more ways to impose laws and regulations that have taken more and more rights away from citizens. Here are few of the rights that American's have lost since his presidency:

- The right to buy or not buy health insurance (which opens the door to the federal government making other commerce mandatory)
- The right to own a gun has been infringed (opposing a clear reading of the 2nd amendment).
- The right to home ownership (this is a backdoor kind of thing that would take an entire other article to prove, but it surrounds the bailouts and how many people lost their houses due to the banks being bailed out of bad loans.)
- The right to practice free religion and to operate a business with a free conscious. (This is primarily around the Hobby Lobby story with mandating birth control in insurance plans, and so on.)
-Extension and enlarging of The Patriot Act.

These are the main bullet points, but the idea is clear. Fewer and fewer choices are truly free to be made. Even decisions about what we can do with our own bodies with regard to health care is being mandated. Ultimately, regardless of temporal cost, or secular opinion, the nation is being led down a path of fewer choices.

What is missing from America is a love of freedom, which, in many ways, can be seen as a love of God, the granter of true and lasting freedom.