politcians and our rights

[jmlpa]

http://www.pagunrights.com/2009/07/p...ncealed-carry/

[TaePo]

The following are snippets from the founders and discussions about the founders and the Constitution. It is not a cohesive whole but representative of what our Government and individual rights were about and how they were to relate to each other. I don't understand these anti-gun politicians. Have they forgotten their oath to the Constitution? They wouldn't be able to enter office without promising/swearing to defend it:

As noted in the Declaration, a government has many purposes, but its foremost object is to protect the liberty and rights of its citizens.

John Patrick (2003) summarizes a part of James Madison’s Federalist Number 10:
“…he emphasized the potential tyranny of the majority as the main threat to individual rights in a government based on popular sovereignty. The idea of the Constitution was to limit power from any source, including the will of the majority, in order to protect the rights of the individuals against tyranny.”
This is exactly why a Republic and not a Democracy was chosen as the governmental form. Democracy was derided as a mobocracy. So not only governmental power but the majorities’ power must be constructively limited as well.

In the Federalist Papers Number 28, Hamilton (n.d., para. 6) discusses problems of over bearing government. First, power is given to representatives to defray the opportunity to consolidate and abuse power, but even if this failed, “…there is then no resource left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government.” He also explains that no matter what level of government usurps power, state or federal, the people can throw their weight and force behind the other and use the other as the instrument of redress (n.d., para. 7). This indicates that failure and the ability to resist goes both ways whether on the federal or state level.

The (Bill of) rights are natural and inherent to our beings and cannot be repealed as the Constitution does not allow that power to the government. Further, the reference to rights is one of enumeration, not granting to the people from society or government.

The two main provisions of the 14th Amendment conserved the right of an individual in any and all states. The provisions provided that, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person equal protection of the laws”

Our forefathers, fresh from the toils of a battlefield to throw off the yoke of oppression, gave us wonderful well thought-out documents; the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They all shared the purpose of begrudgingly accepting that man historically finds governments necessary and that mankind then defines the very thing which might eventually enslave him. But the founders believed a government must protect individual rights above all other duties. The limited powers conferred upon a government come from the people and are revocable. It is all designed to ensure that only the powers of government are limited and that the rights of the people are not ever limited but preserved in whole, forever. The Second Amendment especially becomes the final arbiter should all else fail. Be the threat due to governmental tyranny or criminal intents; the right of arms belongs to the people for their defense against both.