The Constitution was written to grant regulatory powers for the purpose of ENHANCING individual rights, not limiting them. There is nothing in the “collective rights” argument which enhances the lives of individual citizens, only the enhancement of gov’t power over compliant subjects.
To a very precise end: I could be called up for national defense - but most assuredly when I’m called up (at 39, I’d be among the last called, and that under extremely dire circumstance) the gov’t won’t have much in the way of arms to hand out; under the “individual right” theory I’ll just bring my own which I already am familiar with, but under the “collective right” theory I’d be SOL on the front lines until I found what another dropped, with the hopes I could figure it out in time.
To wit: the “collective right” argument does nothing to enhance my ability to protect the nation.
FYI: Brady Goodthink, doubleplusgood
Doctors
(A) The number of doctors in the U.S. is 700,000
(B) Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year are 120,000
(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 17.14%
Statistics courtesy of the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services
Guns:
(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000 (yes, that’s 80 million)
(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500
(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is 0.001875%
Statistics courtesy of the FBI
So statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners
Remember, guns don’t kill people, doctors do! (And there’s nothing in the Bill of Rights about them either.)