Rights are not "rights"

It seems as though we have a lot of people who are either ignorant of the founding documents or are willfully ignorant or just in plain denial.

Always going back to the basic point that we don't just take the Constitution on it's own but in the context as provided by the Declaration of Independence.  The Declaration tells us "why", the Constitution tells us "how".  We need to remind those ignorant of history that the rights we have are not granted by government.

In the U.S., the rights, actual rights, not to be confused with privileges, are not granted or given to people by the government.  They are given to people by God (A higher authority than people and identified in that way) and recognized by government.

Rights belong to all people, privileges belong to a membership.  As identified in the Declaration of Independence, people have the God given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (among others).  The government cannot interfere with those rights.  It can NOT legislate in ways that exclude people from those rights.

The first amendment is very much tied to the right to liberty.  Free speech, free press, religion, assembly, and petitioning the government.

The second amendment is very much tied to right to life.  You have the right to defend your life and to sustain your life. (Defense and hunting at the least).

So, for all you that talk about repealing these amendments as if they are nothing more than clubhouse rules, you are incorrect.  These are representative of the God given Rights of each person and the Constitution exists to uphold those rights from the popularity swings of a mob majority that would deny those same recognition of Rights to minorities.

They are not the majority's Rights to give or take, they are not the government's Rights to give or take and they are no individual person's Rights to give or take from anyone else.


Get over yourselves.