The meaning of 'infringe'(CA)

Once again, for those Second Amendment snivelers who responded to Inga Barks' Jan. 28 column, "Long-gun ban only threatens our free speech rights," in the Feb. 1 Letters section:

"Infringe (verb): Act so as to limit or undermine (something); encroach on. 'Infringe on his privacy.'"

So those bombasts who start sentences with "I don't want to infringe on anyone's rights, but ..." are doing exactly that.

* Cops can't protect you from crime, but packing iron might. It ain't a guarantee, but having a gun offers more opportunity to successfully defend yourself and loved ones than the lack of one does.

* The urban myth of a crime victim being injured or killed with his own weapon is exactly that; armed victims come out of violent confrontations much more successfully than unarmed ones. Check the Net; it's a fact.

* Random violent crime always declines in open-carry societies, and open-carry individuals are much less likely to be accosted than unarmed victims. Think about it; would you screw with an obviously armed citizen?

* Ample laws already exist to deal with folks that misuse guns. If you don't like seeing 'em, tough; you oughta cowboy up and get a life.

* And finally, guns protect citizens from tyrannical governments and from tyrannical majorities -- exactly as the Founding Fathers intended.

"Infringe (verb): Act so as to limit or undermine (something); encroach on. 'Infringe on his privacy.'"

Regarding 'Infringe on his privacy', the unstated assumption is that "he" has a right to privacy in whatever the situation is. That may not be true in some situations therefore any limiting, undermining or encroaching would not constitute infringement. The same holds true if you substitute "right to keep and bear arms" for "privacy".

So those bombasts who start sentences with "I don't want to infringe on anyone's rights, but ..." are doing exactly that.

Not necessarily. Someone who says "I don't want to infringe on anyone's rights, but ..." may just be trying to figure out where the right of one person begins and the right of another ends.

Some people might maintain the “right to keep and bear arms” (which right “SHALL NOT be infringed”) does not include keeping and bearing arms on the property of someone else who has not given permission to do so, and that doing so anyway is an infringement of the person's property rights. If so, prohibiting keeping and bearing arms on private property is not an infringement of the right. Some people might maintain otherwise.

A person trying to figure out where the right of one person begins and the right of another ends might begin with the statement "I don't want to infringe on anyone's rights, but ..."

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