If you choose to give up your life in the pursuit of liberty, that's great for you and great for us. But rights are things that circumscribe government actions

If you choose to give up your life in the pursuit of liberty, that's great for you and great for us. But rights are things that circumscribe government actions, not individuals. A government's first job and most important job is to safeguard the lives of it's citizens. Liberty is it's second job. I suspect the real reason for this is that security is easier to define and agree on than liberty is. Ditto for property vs liberty.