The Bill of Rights has only 10 amendments to our original Constitution. That's not bad for a document that has survived 235 years. It is the world's longest suriviving charter of government. The 2nd amendment comes only after the 1st amendment which has to do with freedom of speech.
So, the right to keep and bear arms is required in order to insure the 1st amendment and many if not all of the other amendments in the Bill of Rights.
What are all the other amendments really worth and what rights does an individual or "we the people", the citizens of the United States have if we are
helpless to defend our God given rights, our safety, our property, our families and ourselves?
Many of the rights in the Bill of Rights are under attack these days, certainly the first and the second amendment are questioned by the government and a segment of the populace.
I think that part of the problem is that many people today (not the LRH community) but the larger world we live in do not understand the difference between a Republic and a Democracy, and what the United States was designed to be and has been for 235 years.
The United States is a Republic. It is not designed to be a " Pure Democracy" . (In the pledge of allegiance that's why it says its the Republic for which we stand, not the Democracy.)
We have never historically practiced Pure Democracy in America ---Never Ever---but now it seems we are descending into the depths of Mob Rule, which is really what Pure Democracy is.
Here is an example in the real world of the difference between a Republic and a Democracy:
You know, I quit eating hot dogs and baloney sandwiches when I got out of college. I ate nothing but hot dogs and baloney for 4 long years, and grew to hate the sight of a hot dog. To this day, the only time since I left college that I will even consider a hot dog is when I am in the stands at a baseball game. This seemingly weird confession from like nowhere will become more relevant as we discuss freedom, liberty, and minority rights in the example below.
Most people on the street if you ask them will tell you that in America, we are a Democracy, where the rule of the majority is the law of the land. Here's an example: If you are in the back seat of a car with four other people and four of them vote to go get hot dogs, then you as the fifth wheel in that car are going to the hot dog stand. Not fruit, not a salad, not a steak, nor a hamburger---by golly, you either eat a hot dog or you don't eat!
In a Democracy, the Majority's power is absolute and unlimited; its decisions are unappealable. In a pure Democracy, The Individual, and any group of Individuals composing any Minority, have no protection against the unlimited power of The Majority. Congratulations! You are on the way to have a hot dog! Majority rule is destructive of individual liberty because there is no law to prevent the majority from trampling on individual rights. Whatever the majority says goes in a Democracy! In other words, Mob Rules-Its Hot Dogs-Yippee-ai-Kaiyay!
The American philosophy and system of government are supposed to bar both the "Snob-Rule" of a governing Elite and the "Mob-Rule" of an Omnipotent All-Knowing Majority. This is designed, above all else, to preclude the existence in America of any governmental power capable of being misused so as to violate The Individual's rights--to endanger the people's liberties. The Constitution is designed to resist the "Tyranny of the Majority". James Madison's machine of constitutional protection is really designed to prevent or at least to minimize the impact of Mob Rule on those who are in the minority. Yes, the Tyranny of the Majority. That's what happens in a Pure Democracy.
That's why we have the protection of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and why we have a Constitutional Republic ---not a Democracy! A Constitutional Republic is critically different from a Democracy because the minority is always protected from the "Tyranny of the Majority" by the Constitution and Bill of Rights. (No matter who may be in the minority at any moment in time ---and it does shift)
At the end of the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin was asked by a lady at the exit, what the gathering had a accomplished? He replied: "Madam, "A Republic if you can keep it". No more profound words have been uttered in such a short sentence---"A Republic if you can keep it".
Can we keep the Republic? Can we keep the Constitution?
I rue the day when HOT DOGS RULE! You decide, but don't ever ride in the back seat with four other folks who don't respect a minimum threshold of rights for you as the minority.
If we do not keep our second amendment rights, the other 9 amendments to the U.S. Constitution and that very document will not survive.
We have to fight for the whole Bill of Rights, but right up there is the 2nd Amendment.
So, the right to keep and bear arms is required in order to insure the 1st amendment and many if not all of the other amendments in the Bill of Rights.
What are all the other amendments really worth and what rights does an individual or "we the people", the citizens of the United States have if we are
helpless to defend our God given rights, our safety, our property, our families and ourselves?
Many of the rights in the Bill of Rights are under attack these days, certainly the first and the second amendment are questioned by the government and a segment of the populace.
I think that part of the problem is that many people today (not the LRH community) but the larger world we live in do not understand the difference between a Republic and a Democracy, and what the United States was designed to be and has been for 235 years.
The United States is a Republic. It is not designed to be a " Pure Democracy" . (In the pledge of allegiance that's why it says its the Republic for which we stand, not the Democracy.)
We have never historically practiced Pure Democracy in America ---Never Ever---but now it seems we are descending into the depths of Mob Rule, which is really what Pure Democracy is.
Here is an example in the real world of the difference between a Republic and a Democracy:
You know, I quit eating hot dogs and baloney sandwiches when I got out of college. I ate nothing but hot dogs and baloney for 4 long years, and grew to hate the sight of a hot dog. To this day, the only time since I left college that I will even consider a hot dog is when I am in the stands at a baseball game. This seemingly weird confession from like nowhere will become more relevant as we discuss freedom, liberty, and minority rights in the example below.
Most people on the street if you ask them will tell you that in America, we are a Democracy, where the rule of the majority is the law of the land. Here's an example: If you are in the back seat of a car with four other people and four of them vote to go get hot dogs, then you as the fifth wheel in that car are going to the hot dog stand. Not fruit, not a salad, not a steak, nor a hamburger---by golly, you either eat a hot dog or you don't eat!
In a Democracy, the Majority's power is absolute and unlimited; its decisions are unappealable. In a pure Democracy, The Individual, and any group of Individuals composing any Minority, have no protection against the unlimited power of The Majority. Congratulations! You are on the way to have a hot dog! Majority rule is destructive of individual liberty because there is no law to prevent the majority from trampling on individual rights. Whatever the majority says goes in a Democracy! In other words, Mob Rules-Its Hot Dogs-Yippee-ai-Kaiyay!
The American philosophy and system of government are supposed to bar both the "Snob-Rule" of a governing Elite and the "Mob-Rule" of an Omnipotent All-Knowing Majority. This is designed, above all else, to preclude the existence in America of any governmental power capable of being misused so as to violate The Individual's rights--to endanger the people's liberties. The Constitution is designed to resist the "Tyranny of the Majority". James Madison's machine of constitutional protection is really designed to prevent or at least to minimize the impact of Mob Rule on those who are in the minority. Yes, the Tyranny of the Majority. That's what happens in a Pure Democracy.
That's why we have the protection of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and why we have a Constitutional Republic ---not a Democracy! A Constitutional Republic is critically different from a Democracy because the minority is always protected from the "Tyranny of the Majority" by the Constitution and Bill of Rights. (No matter who may be in the minority at any moment in time ---and it does shift)
At the end of the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin was asked by a lady at the exit, what the gathering had a accomplished? He replied: "Madam, "A Republic if you can keep it". No more profound words have been uttered in such a short sentence---"A Republic if you can keep it".
Can we keep the Republic? Can we keep the Constitution?
I rue the day when HOT DOGS RULE! You decide, but don't ever ride in the back seat with four other folks who don't respect a minimum threshold of rights for you as the minority.
If we do not keep our second amendment rights, the other 9 amendments to the U.S. Constitution and that very document will not survive.
We have to fight for the whole Bill of Rights, but right up there is the 2nd Amendment.
