Posted by
Shogrensus on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 1:25:28 AM
Who knew Joy was a Constitutional Law expert?
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Joy: I was saying this morning and I’ll repeat it again: When the Founding Fathers created the First Amendment, well when we created the First Amendment and the Second Amendment which is the right to bear arms, they did not foresee AK-47 rifles and they did not foresee racist or maybe they did foresee racist speech since slavery was in effect at that time. They did not foresee slurred speech against individual groups or this and that. So, it’s almost like if you think about it the First and Second Amendments are on the carpet this week, both of them. You know you can see that there are extremes and I am a big First Amendment advocate because 'sticks and stones can break my bones but names will never harm me' is the way I was raised. But with the Second Amendment I think it is a little bit more dangerous than speech so I am a
Rosie: When the forefathers were writing the Constitution they were talking about muskets and cannons that it took 20 men to roll up a hill to shoot. They weren’t talking about a 9mm gun with 12 bullets that you can reload in 3 seconds and shoot 33 people. They weren’t thinking this because it wasn’t possible to imagine.
Elisabeth: It puts the human balance off because one person can then kill 33 including himself
Joy: But they couldn’t also imagine YouTube they couldn’t imagine Don Imus, Howard Stern, us.
Rosie: Listen, no one died because of Don Imus. No one died because of Don Imus.
Joy: That’s my point. That’s my point. The two of them are on the carpet this week but I think one is more relevant and more dangerous than the other
***
In a very brief nutshell, the Founding Fathers wrote the Bill of Rights to protect the citizens from the potential tyrannical government. The rights described in the Bill of Rights were not granted by the government but rather guaranteed via the Constitution. These rights were the rights of individuals.
The Founding Fathers also wrote into the Constitution a process for amending the Constitution, hence the 27 Amendments found following the Constitution.
The Founding Fathers did not need to imagine the possibility of AK-47s or any other modern day item or issue. The put into place a mechanism for the citizens of this country to rise up and demand the government act in a certain manner.
If the citizens of the United States want to amend the Constitution to alter the people's access to guns then the citizens can do that. Until then, the NRA will continue to serve as one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington, fighting to protect one of the most basic inalienable rights identified by the Founding Fathers to whom Joy refers.