Jazz Shaw on Rights not needing "permission" from Government to be exercised - Granite Grok

Jazz Shaw on Rights not needing “permission” from Government to be exercised

The concept of the Second Amendment as a natural born right is an interesting one which merits a closer look. I’ve written here in the past about my own rather dubious view of the concept of “natural born” rights based on the idea that “rights” are a concept we install for ourselves using the government as a tool to ensure them. But there’s no question about the idea of Constitutional rights for Americans. We are regularly reminded that all of our rights – even those of free speech and religion – have limits and that’s basically true. But unlike the treatment of the right to keep, and more importantly bear arms, you don’t need to check in with the government before you begin exercising them. You don’t need a permit to speak in the public square and someone will be along presently to remind you that you’ve overstepped your bounds if you wind up falsely shouting “Fire!” in a movie theater. There is no license required to go check out all the local churches when you move to a new town… you just do it. Should you decide on one full of hippies where they hand out peyote during services you’ll no doubt be hearing from the authorities, but short of that you’ll be fine with no paperwork required.

So how is it that a person who has never broken a single law still needs a permit before getting a gun? It says right in the Constitution that your right to do so shall not be infringed. If you abuse that right then we can forbid you from having firearms, but until that point shouldn’t it be a “natural born right” in the same sense?

I heartily disagree with Shaw that our Rights are only based that the Constitution protects them – after all, the Founders themselves made it well known that Government is instituted to protect those Rights; thus they must pre-exist Government.  And if there is no Government, the must be the Right to self-defense.

He is right that if I wish to speak out (as I am doing here), I need not petition the Government to be able to do so (although with Obama giving away the Internet, let’s see how long every despot and dictatorship in the world will allow me to do so (given they are now “stakeholders” – how I loathe that word – in its governance). I don’t have to go to town hall or the State capital and tell them “I’m going to exercise my right to my religious beliefs by going to the Next Door Baptist Church” (although Obama and the Left ARE working hard to restrict that to the “right to worship but keep your beliefs out of OUR public square”.

Of all of the Rights enumerated in the Constitution, that one most hated by the Left is the Second.  It is only because of that stupid urge of Politicians to be seen as “doing something” when a temporary crisis or singular event happens.  As Senator Murphy keeps telling us, the Progressive / Socialist politicians desire such crisis as it presents them not just an opportunity to “do something” but to advance their agenda (aka Rahm Emmanual’s “never waste a crisis”).  Seriously, every time a crisis occurs, see who is stepping forward to have Government take action and see what that action is – it almost ALWAYS chips away our our natural born rights.  In this, they prove themselves not to be Progressive but hold a hard brass knuckles fist in turning our Republic to be more Hobbesian in that Rights are all surrendered to Government which then deigns to allow you to exercising them only at its behest.

Just like pretty much every form of government since before our Revolutionary War and quite a few since then.  In this, they are just the same old greedy people whose coin of power is not monetary but that of control – the ability to tell people what they can do and only when allowed.

We as a country are dropping in the Freedom ranking (now 15th) like a rock under Obama – imagine what the speed that drop will be if Hillary is elected?  Doubt me?  Tell me, from her campaign stump speeches, how many times she said that choice would be up to us and that government would just step back and withdraw from that area of life?  Consider this – how much Freedom do we have when ONLY our Rights are allowed but Government steps into every other nook and cranny?  What good is that?

This is the work of those that sneer at the letter and the spirit of the Constitution and lie every time they say their oaths to it.  Yet, the American public continue to elect and re-elect them.

Sorry Ben, it seems that we are losing the Republic you gave us – mostly be no longer keeping to our civil duty and a lack of interest.

(H/T: Hot Air)

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