Ok. I admit it. I lost it a little bit earlier today. A website had a picture showing a panel asking a man why he needed 30-round magazines. The man responded by saying, among other things, that the right to keep and bear arms came from God, not government. He went on to ask the panel who they thought they were, and reminded them that they worked for him.
The photo was pretty effective at getting one riled up over the whole gun control issue. But my blood started to boil when I began reading the comments. The thread had degraded into an argument over the existence of God. 95% of the people commenting were against gun control, but that point had been lost after someone made the comment that by mentioning God, the argument for gun rights became less credible.
Really?
The more I read, the more steamed I got. There were people on there arguing that their rights came from the Constitution, not God (wrong). Someone said gun ownership was the same as driving, and should be regulated in the same way (wrong). The more I read, the more I realized how many misconceptions people have concerning the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Let's start with the simple one. Owning a gun is not like owning a car. Driving is a privilege, not a guaranteed right. Nowhere in the Bill of Rights is the right to drive a vehicle mentioned. One might argue that motorized vehicles didn't exist. Fair enough, but horses and carriages did. Funny, I don't see anything about them, either.
But let's move on to the biggie, the one that seems to cause the most confusion. Folks, the Constitution grants you nothing. Pure and simple. The Bill of Rights grants you nothing. What that document does is forbids the federal government to infringe on your natural rights. Some people call them God-given rights, and there's not a thing in the world wrong with that. The Bill of Rights refers to them as inalienable rights.
These are rights you earned by doing one simple thing: you were born. The Founding Fathers did not grant them. A piece of parchment did not grant them. When you came into being, you were automatically endowed with them. Now, if someone believes in God, then God gets the credit. If not, then evolution gets it, I guess. The point is, no matter where the credit goes, you have them, just the same.
As an aside, the right to believe in God, or whichever deity you choose, is also an inalienable right, because no one can tell you which religion you must practice. Check out Amendment number One.
What I'm trying to say is, whether we're Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, atheist....whatever, we must put our theological differences long enough to put up a united front against those who would usurp our rights and seek to rule over us with tyranny. When we bicker and squabble amongst ourselves, we show weakness. The enemy sits back and laughs with delight.
Let's not give them the satisfaction.
