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For anyone reading along at home: Gun rights do not derive from the Constitution, they derive from the natural right of a being to protect itself. The second am
by racnid 7y ago
For anyone reading along at home: Gun rights do not derive from the Constitution, they derive from the natural right of a being to protect itself. The second amendment is codifed there to attempt to limit the power of the government to take away that right. Despite what you may have been told it is not a collective right (there's no such thing), it is an individual right. Just like every other right enumerated in the Constitution.
- aalleavitch 7y agoYou give the individual too much credit. If the majority wanted to take away your guns, they would. The majority also can take away your right to self-determine, that's the entire basis of law and criminal punishment. If laws were based on fundamental moral truth they wouldn't change, and yet laws change all the time, that's one of the fundamental strengths of the US constitution (because time often shows laws to be unjust).
- ryeights 7y agoThat's true, but only so because democracy is the best option we have, i.e., it is the "least bad".
- sdinsn 7y agoBut many people (including myself) don't believe in the concept of "natural rights". I accept that rights only exist if they are granted to you and protected under law. Therefore, my rights to own guns is in fact derived from the Constitution.
- racnid 7y agoWhile you're certainly welcome to that opinion, it's incompatible with the origins and philosophy of the US Constitution at the very least. Your rights still exist even if someone hasn't told you they do.