Illegals have a right to protect themselves. But they don’t have a right to be in this country or to leach off of it.
The author uses the fire in a crowded theater example because that is a reasonable limitation on the inalienable right to free speech. As he says, it’s reasonable to say that convicted murderers and other serious criminals don’t have a right to bear arms. They still have a basic right to defend themselves, but they can’t be trusted with a gun.
Probably that applies to non-citizens in this country.
It’s always possible to think up exceptions and objections. Even a murderer probably has a right to defend himself. The law says he can’t own a gun, but moral justice might say that in extreme circumstances he would be right to defend himself, even though the law would punish him for doing it.
For instance, that convicted rapist that Huckabee freed who went on to kill a couple more people was earlier tied up in his home by a couple of gangsters who proceded to neuter him. Maybe you could say he deserved it, given his life of vicious crimes, but it would be hard to say he didn’t have a right to defend himself against such an attack.
I agree. I believe the right to protect yourself (ie., self defense) to be an inalienable right, given to all of us by God as part of our right to life.
But, unfortunately, that's not what we're discussing here. We are talking about the right to keep and bear arms and whether or not the right to keep and bear arms, even if those arms are used for self defense, is a God-given inalienable right.
"They still have a basic right to defend themselves, but they can’t be trusted with a gun. Probably that applies to non-citizens in this country."
I agree, but that hardly sounds like an inalienable right. I just can't picture God saying, for example, "I give to all the inalienable right to life and liberty ... except you guys over there, and you three in the corner, and you short people there by the tree because you just can't be trusted."
In my opinion, the right to keep and bear arms is a natural right. We were born with it. No person or government gives it to us. The decision on whether to protect this individual natural right, and to what extent, is made by the citizens of each state and written into their state constitution.
The second amendment is whole nuther matter entirely.