Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: RonF
I don't remember any document defining possession of guns to be an inalienable right. While the 2nd Amendment uses the phrase "shall not be infringed", I don't see how that figures into the distinction you make between two kinds of rights.

Your first sentence is contradicted by your second sentence.

Right to bear arms: "...shall not be infringed." Period. That is made per the BoR "in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of [government] powers". The Constitution made that recognition & protection when it went into effect.

Right to vote: interestingly, the right to vote was not even part of the Constitution originally (only vague references to the people choosing certain representatives). That was first added in 1870, prohibiting voting restrictions based on race, color or prior servitude (prohibitions on sex-based restrictions were banned in 1920). Note that the right to vote is Constitutionally only expressed in terms of what restrictions are impermissible.

The distinction between the right to arms and the right to vote is downright dramatic: one was embodied and protected in the original Constitution with "shall not be infringed", while the other was not even recognized at the federal level originally and was only added later.

155 posted on 04/30/2003 8:40:31 AM PDT by ctdonath2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies ]


To: ctdonath2
Right to vote: interestingly, the right to vote was not even part of the Constitution originally (only vague references to the people choosing certain representatives).

Hm. From our favorite document, regarding the House of Representatives:

Article I

Section 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states, and the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature.

Looks pretty specific to me. Electors are persons who have the right to vote, and their specific identity is defined by the states. Let's not forget that the Federal Constitution was not written in a vacumn; when it was written, all the States had constitutions, and they all had franchised large segments of their populations with a vote. The writers of the Federal Constitution knew this, and therefore intended and knew very well that this clause thus granted the right to vote (which is equivalent to defining someone as an elector) for HoR members, anyway, to large groups of people. I wouldn't call this vague.

I therefore contest your premise:

The distinction between the right to arms and the right to vote is downright dramatic: one was embodied and protected in the original Constitution with "shall not be infringed", while the other was not even recognized at the federal level originally and was only added later.

In fact, the right to vote is recognized in the above clause of the Constitution.

And as far as "shall not be infringed" goes; that statement does not equal "inalienable rights". The concept of the latter was that certain rights, specifically those of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" were rights granted by the Creator, and not by Government. It is a proper government's job to help citizens preserve those rights from infringment, not to grant them. Nowhere is it stated or implied that the right to bear arms is a right granted by the Creator; what it states is that the right to bear arms "shall not be infringed". But, since the right to life and liberty, which unlike the right to bear arms were called "inalienable rights" earlier in the American lexicon, are in fact able to be legitimately denied by the government using due process (via the 5th amendment), certainly the right to bear arms, inferior to the right to life itself, can also be denied by due process.

181 posted on 04/30/2003 9:22:44 AM PDT by RonF
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 155 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson