In a haze
Headline: Residents know their rights, but are a bit hazy on the details
First sentence: The U.S. Constitution grants many freedoms, including freedom of speech, the right to bear arms and protection from unlawful search and seizure.
The Constitution doesn’t grant freedoms. It assumes they exist and limits the .gov’s ability to impact them. It doesn’t say you have a right to X; rather it says Congress shall make no law. So, the press is a bit hazy on the details. Still, it’s not amusing that people don’t seem to know rights that are enumerated.
September 18th, 2007 at 11:40 am
Correct. The second amendment is actually up for review. The supreme court has decided to hear the D.C. handgun ban case. They are arguing two separate clauses.
Anti-gun: A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state,
Which the Anti crowd means that only the militia should have guns
Pro-Gun: the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Which means that the people, you and me, should have guns.
What did Jefferson really mean:
“None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important.” –Thomas Jefferson, 1803.
“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”
–Thomas Jefferson, quoting Cesare Beccaria in On Crimes and Punishment (1764).
September 18th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Er, not that I disagree with your result, but I was under the impression that Madison framed the Bill of Rights. I think it also explicitly states right that people have, just not that they have them because they are listed.
September 18th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
It has long been my argument that the Education System has been
brainwashingteaching students things that aren’t true. The intent (my opinion) is to “train” them so that the corrections you cite are no longer considered correct.We see the fruits of their labor in the news nearly every day.
September 19th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
gattsuru,
I believe that to be the ninth which does essentially boil down to: “Just ’cause they ain’t listed here, don’t mean you don’t have them”.