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THE COMMON SENSE 2ND AMENDMENT
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
THE COMMON SENSE 2ND AMENDMENTby STAN JORDAN StanOrKellie@KeepAndBearArms.comDecember 13, 2001I have long wondered about the fights over the 2ND amendment to the constitution. It always seemed ridiculous to me that anyone would interpret the amendment to mean anything other than an individual right.I put the amendment to a simple test to see if it really was an individual or a collective right as some would have us believe.The test is simple; I just took the amendment and substituted different words to see how the meaning would sound. The first new amendment I considered was the following, "A well regulated transportation system, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and maintain autos shall not be infringed."Sounds ridiculous doesn't it? However, we can see the relationship between the first part of the sentence, "A well regulated transportation system" and the right of persons to keep and maintain autos. The first part of the sentence only explains the reasoning for protecting the right; it doesn't limit that right, even if a well regulated transportation system doesn't exist. The thing it doesn't say is what kind of autos we may own. Well, doesn't it make sense that we may own any auto that exists, to suit the uses you need it for? Now what if the government said "You may only own the type of autos we say you may own, and only under the circumstances that we prescribe and where we say you may use them". Would this be an infringement of your right? You better believe it would be an infringement on my right, because I may not want or maybe cannot afford the auto the government wants me to own. If the government said no one could own SUV's, only economy cars because SUV's cause too many deaths on the highway, would they be infringing on my right. You bet they would, because an SUV is an auto and the amendment says I have a right to own it.I know this may be a ridiculous example, because we have no god given right to autos for transportation, but that's not the point here. The point I am making is that the 2nd amendment was meant to protect a right that exists, and no law that infringes on that right is constitutional.OK, let's try one more example that may provide a little more clarity on this subject. Do you have the God given right to breathe? If so, then the following may make sense to you. "A well regulated life, being necessary to a free and living society, the right of the people to breathe air shall not be infringed."Another ridiculous example huh? Well, maybe, but you cannot argue the fact that if this were a right protected by the constitution, you would damn well say that the government could not regulate breathing. If you quit breathing, you will die and the government cannot say in what manner, or what air or under what circumstances you may breathe. Nor could they license breathing. Now, is this a collective or individual right? It's both, I have an individual right, and society has a collective right to breathe.But, you may say that the comparison is ridiculous since we have to breathe air to live. Well, you may also need a gun some day to live, as well. You might also say that breathing doesn't kill people and guns do. Well, not breathing kills people, and not owning a gun to protect your rights to live is tantamount to not breathing if your life is in danger. History has told us in no uncertain terms that a disarmed society risks death and at the very least subjugation by government. Government is not reason, government is selfish interests and partisan politics.It doesn't take a great legal mind nor a genius to understand the meaning of the 2nd amendment. It only takes the ability to read what our forefathers said the meaning is by reading their words in the Federalist papers and other documents, and a modicum of common sense. If you believe what the people who would take your rights from you say, then you are no better than a sheep who needs a shepherd to lead you around and tell you what you need and what's best for you. If you are one of these folks, don't bother trying to understand the obvious, because it will only confuse you.Once you understand the true meaning of the 2nd amendment, you won't be taken in by organizations such as the Violence Policy Center, the Brady Campaign, or Senators like Kennedy, Schumer, Feinstein and the like who's agenda is perfectly clear, even if they don't publicly state what that agenda is. If you are taken in by their lies and half truths, what shall you do when they say you don't have the right to breathe, or that you may breathe only when allowed by law and in the manner prescribed by law?I'm sure I don't know.Maybe you should ask the government. http://www.keepandbeararms.com/information/XcIBViewItem.asp?ID=2927
Comments
Happiness is a warm gun[This message has been edited by salzo (edited 12-13-2001).]