December 21st, 2012
How soon we forget: the right to self protection and the right of the freedom of expression
The war for independence in the USA had many causes but the trigger point for many was a tax on tea. What would the war have been like had the crown tried to tax or dictate what the founders ate or fix how much wealth they could have looking at what they did over a tax on tea? The founders of the USA once they established the right to freely express one’s self and not have the government involved in what one believed or did not believe next the founders armed the people. The right to express one’s self and the right to defend one’s self go hand in hand because the founders sought to empower the individual which meant often having to defend one’s beliefs which could cost an individual its life. The founders of the USA knew that if they spoke against the crown they could and likely would either be imprisoned or killed. The founders also knew that if the war went as they willed the founders would logically be those in power in the new country. What did the founders do with all the power they now had having won the war and crafted a nation? The founders asserted that the right to freely express one’s self came from a transpersonal source i.e. God which is not an endorsement of a deity or faith but rather a slot for what one invests in which for an atheist could be nothing or nature.
By placing the right to the freedom of expression even philosophically speaking as stemming from a transpersonal source the founders made it so that nothing could take that right or the rest of that Bill of Rights from any individual that is a lawful citizen of the USA. Rather than affirmative rights under the constitution the founders set out to define what they the government could not do leaving much to the states and the bulk of the power with the individual. To insure and enforce the other rights which ultimately stem from the right to express one’s self i.e. be one’s self the founders affirmed the right of the individual to defend its self and prosperity even against the government if need be. The founders did not escape one tyranny to create another and so set up the government of the USA to prevent a tyranny from forming. The price for having these rights is that the citizens of the USA must vote, any that can vote and do not are allowing a minority of those that do to infringe upon the rights of the majority.
The founders knew that to maintain freedom that they put in the constitution the populous had to be able to object to the government without fear of the government imposing its will on the people. The ability to object is backed by the power to defend one’s self against the government or any party that would take one’s property or hinder one’s freedom. Bans on weapons or ammo that is legally gotten by one that can legally have such things goes against the documents on which this nation was founded. Creating more or new laws when the laws on the books are not followed with people not being held to what they do is a pointless action that invites polite tyranny. If the government can take lawfully obtained and used weapons that same government is attempting to control self protection and thus self expression. It matters not that weapons are firearms or not; the ability to protect and expression one’s self are deeply linked. If any government can find a reason to limit one right of the individual for the good of all what is there to protect the other rights of the individual? If enough individual rights are taken there will be no more rights left for the masses.