Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: This message was self-deleted by its author [View all]beevul
(12,194 posts)So typical. Get everyone asking the wrong question, and of course they're bound to come up with the wrong answer.
Exhibit A:
"Who did these rights belong to?"
Yup. That's the wrong question.
Incidentally, ALL rights belong to the people, inherently, in our system of government, and ONLY people can have rights (governments have "powers" which is not the same thing).
Asking "who" rights belong to, is...well...just dumb.
The bill of rights protects rights belonging to people, through a mechanism of rules which government must follow. "Congress shall make no law..." and so on. The preamble to the bill of rights explicitly states as much, saying that "in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its (governments) powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added...".
In amendment 2, it says that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed because a well regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state ( yes, in modern language that's exactly what it says). The key point there, is that a right belonging to the people shall not be infringed by government.
Where in any of that, do you read that "shall not be infringed" refers to what government shall not do, strictly in the collective capacity vs individual?
I don't see any qualifiers there...That's the real question at hand here, since that's exactly what the law of the land says, as passed, without such imaginative qualifiers.