Tag Archives: Life liberty and the pursuit of happiness

Haven’t These People Read The U.S. Constitution?

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Today Breitbart.com reported that Robert Barnes, a reporter for the Washington Post, has argued that the individual right to keep and bear arms was established in 2008 by the Supreme Court case District of Columbia v. Heller, a case that was decided five to four.

First of all, The Declaration of Independence states:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.— That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—

According to the Declaration of Independence, our rights are unalienable, they come from God–not from man, and government derives its power from the consent of the governed. Our rights do not come from the Supreme Court or any Justice on the Supreme Court.

The Second Amendment states:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed

The article reports:

Barnes makes this point by citing UCLA law professor Adam Winkler, who notes Kennedy voted with the majority in Heller, thereby “establishing the individual gun ownership right.” But Winkler also contends that “it was Kennedy who insisted” the decision “contain language” making clear the court “was not calling into question reasonable restrictions on gun ownership.”

Winkler subsequently suggested the court’s finicky appetite toward gun cases since Heller and McDonald v. Chicago (2010) is a reflection of “concern about the way Justice Kennedy is going to go [in future cases].” 

For Barnes, like Winkler, Kennedy is key to restricting “the fundamental right the court found six years ago.

The Second Amendment (like the rest of the U.S. Constitution) was designed to protect Americans from a tyrannical government usurping power and taking over the country. At some point I hope that those who want to undo the Second Amendment realize that it protects them–it does not endanger them.

 

 

Happy Fourth of July

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Posted by Andrea Soucy on facebook:

If the weather cooperates, there could be a lot of barbeques, beach cookouts, peak bagging, and bike tours this weekend; topped off by some fabulous fireworks. Sometime during the happy, hectic celebrations please take a few minutes to reflect on why all the cause for joy; we are celebrating the coming together of a greatly diverse group of men who pledged their fortunes, their lives, and their sacred honor to overthrow a government that had grown into a tyrannical and oppressive monstrosity. They saw themselves as citizens and felt that George III saw them as serfs to be exploited. Despite a number of years of pleas for redress to their grievances, the government became ever more repressive. That was when they came to a decision to throw off the yoke of oppression and create a nation of free men.

It was not a decision made without much discussion and soul searching. They knew that they might be seen as nothing more than treasonous men who would die in infamy after losing their fortunes, lives, and honor in the eyes of others. However, after prayer and reflection, they produced the Declaration of Independence and went back to their cities and towns to spread the news and raise the men to battle the most powerful military force of their time. Because they truly believed in their cause, they did not quit when the weather grew cold and snowy or their clothing tattered and torn. The rags with which they wrapped their feet when boots had fallen to shreds left bloody footprints in the snows of Valley Forge.

I often wonder if I could have persevered in those difficult conditions; I hope I would have but knowing my subterranean pain threshold think I might have folded, although the courage and perseverance of my comrades might have given me the strength to go onward. I certainly hope it would have been the latter. At any rate, I plan to take a bit of time on the fourth for some quiet reflection on their sacrifice that has given me the opportunity to live in the greatest nation that has ever existed to date. It was a noble experiment based on the novel idea that men did not need a king to tell them what to do and when to do it but was conceived with the idea that each person could rule himself if the government would recognize each person’s unalienable rights, given by no man but rather by the God of that person’s understanding, to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As I look upon the current world scene, I am so grateful to those Founders for creating this nation and to God for allowing me to be born a citizen of this nation. Created by mortals, my country is not perfect but it is closer to perfection than any other nation I know and there is no where else I would want to live.

Andrea Soucy is a selectman for the town of Plainville, Massachusetts.

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