For anyone following this conversation, the above relates to Mr. Paulsen's reply # 235, quoted below:
"As per the U.S. Constitution, people have certain unalienable rights which cannot be ceded or taken away. These would include life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and property ownership as examples."
Let me start by saying that if I am not HAPPY, it's because my LIBERTY was taken away from me by the state who decided my LIFE was not worth as much as a criminal's.
If I am prevented from protecting my own life with superior force, then liberty is but a transient word with little meaning and happiness can only be found in heaven. If that be the case, our constitution and the 'doctrine' of unalienable rights have no practical application in the real world and are not worth the paper they are written on.
But that is NOT the case, contrary to what some statists and tyranny-leaning despots would have you believe -- but for some reason, in their wiley ways they do give lip service to the constitution and keep up the facade of 'protecting' it.
In that our rights are unalienable/inalienable as coming from God and/or by virtue of birth, depending on your belief system, the environment to exercise those rights must be created and maintained by man. That is what the 'great experiment' is all about.
For the first time in human history, a large group of subjects found themselves one morning without a king or ruler and took the only course available to survive. They assumed the status as monarchs of themselves, individually, and immediately contracted with other 'monarchs' for their mutual protection.
This was something new to the human race. Something only kings enjoyed heretofore. It was going to take a long time to be able to cope with and learn the meaning of freedom and to begin practicing self-control, self-reliance and pesonal responsibility -- and to agree with each other, by contract, the limits of their freedom.
What our history has recorded since the American Revolution shows the efforts, gains and losses we have made to keep the idea and ideal of self-government alive.
It is sad testimony I must give right now, as it is evident that the next generation of monarchs will be few and far between and will be but a fading memory -- as will the hopes and dreams of all past and present free men who have striven to preserve the inheritance of all Citizens. An inheritance which was comprised of the awareness of unalienable rights and the power to practice those rights and perpetuate the ideals of freedom under the rule of law.
A rule of law which was destroyed in the state where liberty was founded, strangely enough.
An opinion, of course, but one that remains to be tested.
But then, I 'babble.'
As per the U.S. Constitution, people have certain unalienable rights which cannot be ceded or taken away. These would include life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and property ownership as examples.
There are other, fundamental (or natural), rights which you have which may or may not be protected by the state in which you live. For example, you have a fundamental right to protect your self using any means necessary.
The state in which you live may protect that right, but exclude guns as a "necessary means".
If there is a "compelling state interest" in the legislation, then the state may override your fundamental right for the good of the community.
-paulsen-
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Eastbound, -- as we see above from his quote, paulsen is the one here 'babbling'.
In one sentence he admits that: -- "you have a fundamental right to protect your self using any means necessary."
--- Then in the next he boldly claims that "compelling State interest" can infringe upon the right to possess the "means necessary".
--- Both Constitutionally, -- and rationally, -- there can be no State interest in prohibiting the possession of arms needed for self defense.
Millions of our enemies are armed with AK47's.
The paulsens of this world claim that a State [CA] can decree a compelling reason to prohibit us from owning such arms.
Their claims are the true babble.