Via Billy
There is a destructive, delusional meme spreading like a virus among
many misguided Americans. It pushes the idea that government can pick
and choose which rights codified in the Bill of Rights it wishes to
recognize or discard on any given day.
This delusion is
predicated on the concept that if a popular majority can be emotionally
whipped into a frenzy over one particular right, then that right can
simply be discarded and stricken from the Bill of Rights.
But no
such power exists to discard any portion of the Bill of Rights, at least
not without proper ratification by three-fourths of the fifty states.
There is no such power found solely in the federal government. There is
no such power placed solely in the executive branch, nor in Congress,
nor in the White House.
The Bill of Rights describes a set of individual rights and liberties which are not
granted by government, but
recognized as DIVINE rights
given to use by our Creator. Because government never granted the
rights in the first place, it has no authority to take them away.
"The
Framers of the Bill of Rights did not purport to "create" rights.
Rather, they designed the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from
infringing rights and liberties presumed to be preexisting." - William J Brennan Jr.
The
individual liberties described in the Bill of Rights cannot be
infringed, nor deleted, nor overridden by popular opinion... not even
loudly screamed opinion. America is not a nation ruled by the tyranny of
the mob. It isn't even a democracy -- it's a republic, where certain
inalienable rights describe the protection of each individual, even if
that individual is the lone voice of sanity in a majority gone mad. The
Bill of Rights protects individuals from
the tyranny of mob rule
-- a phenomenon that routinely rears its head in any society where
historical illiteracy is rampant and the masses are lulled into a state
of complacency by charismatic but dishonest leaders.
It was the
extended amendments attached to the Bill of Rights that outlawed
slavery, guaranteeing individual freedom to those of African descent
even in a time and place when the majority of voting citizens believed
slavery was socially acceptable. And it was the Second Amendment that
put firearms into the hands of those recently-freed slaves, ensuring
that they could defend themselves against attackers of any color through
the powerful expression of armed defense (aided by the laws of physics
and certain materials from the table of elements, notably lead).
Another
amendment beyond the Bill of Rights granted women equal voting rights
in an age when the majority believed women should not be allowed to
vote. It was the Bill of Rights that decriminalized prohibition, ending a
dark era of mass criminalization of everyday citizens who suffered
under the oppression of government law enforcement gone bad.
Yet
today, incredibly, many African-Americans and women are actively
assaulting the very document that first secured their own freedoms. They
now wish to take their freedom and power and use it to enslave someone
else by revoking
other people's rights under the Bill of Rights. This is the ultimate social betrayal, and it is a powerful demonstration of the principle that
those who do not respect freedom for others do not deserve it for themselves.
The Second Amendment is not negotiable
