The nature of 'rights'- Do you have 'Second Amendment rights'?
I suppose it is time to once again remind people what rights are, and what the purpose of the Bill of Rights was.
I say this because someone has posted a comment demonstrating beyond a shadow of a doubt that they have no clue what a right is, and don't understand what the Bill of Rights had to do with rights; specifically the right to own and to carry arms mentioned in the Second Amendment.
A right is something you can do, without asking permission from anyone, simply because you are alive. Anything that does not violate another person's identical and equal rights is within your rights to do, whether trivial or monumentally important. A right can not be limited, regulated, restricted, licensed, or taxed. It can only be respected or violated. A right does not place an obligation on anyone else on your behalf, and "having to put up with being offended" by your actions does not equal an "obligation" on anyone else. In other words, as long as you are not harming or threatening to harm any innocent person while you exercise your right it doesn't matter how upset, offended, or "scared" someone gets by your actions, they have no right to try to stop you.
The Bill of Rights was misnamed as it did nothing to "give" you rights, but was simply written and ratified to make it illegal for government, at any level (yes, even without the 14th Amendment- read the Constitution if you don't believe me. Article IV, Section 2) to make any "laws" in an attempt to violate anyone's pre-existing rights (a redundant phrase).
You don't have "Second Amendment rights", the government has "Second Amendment limits". That they choose to illegally and illegitimately ignore and violate those limits doesn't affect your rights in the least. It only affects your liberty, which is the freedom to exercise those rights.
Private individuals are not prohibited from violating your rights by the Bill of Rights, but by the nature of rights and by the fact that your rights do not exist at their whim. Their rights do not nullify your rights in any way. Anyone, whether a government thug, a private individual, or an employer, who chooses to violate your rights in any way, using any justification, is not your friend, but a mortal enemy. If they do not trust you as a fully-functional human being with all your rights intact, they do not trust you at all and you should not trust them either.
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Would being armed have saved the victims of the jealous murderer in Albuquerque Monday? There is no way to know, as there seems to have been no warning before the shooting began. One thing that is absolutely certain is that being unarmed, whether by Emcor Corp. policy or through irresponsibility, saved no lives. Your life is in your hands. Protect it.
