Part 4: The Bill of Rights

Part 4: The Bill of Rights. There's been a lot of bleating and bloviating from so-called "liberal thinkers" regarding the irrelevance of the Second Amendment. Let's put that particular amendment in perspective with the rest of the Bill of Rights, and see if everyone is still so keen to talk of the irrelevance of an individual amendment.

First Amendment – Establishment Clause, Free Exercise Clause; freedom of speech, of the press, and of assembly; right to petition
Second Amendment – Militia (United States), Sovereign state, Right to keep and bear arms.
Third Amendment – Protection from quartering of troops.
Fourth Amendment – Protection from unreasonable search and seizure.
Fifth Amendment – due process, double jeopardy, self-incrimination, eminent domain.
Sixth Amendment – Trial by jury and rights of the accused; Confrontation Clause, speedy trial, public trial, right to counsel
Seventh Amendment – Civil trial by jury.
Eighth Amendment – Prohibition of excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishment.
Ninth Amendment – Protection of rights not specifically enumerated in the Constitution.
Tenth Amendment – Powers of States and people.

See anything you'd like to give up? What makes anyone think that the Second Amendment is irrelevant when taken into account with the rest of the Bill of Rights?

The Bill of Rights doesn't grant anyone rights - it protects the natural, intrinsic rights of all people from a tyrannical government. "We don't have a tyrannical government!" many would say. Damned right, and this is why.

With respect to the Second Amendment, I've heard it argued that the Founding Fathers couldn't have fathomed the types of weapons we have today, so there's no justification for owning "military-style" weapons.

By that logic, the use of this keyboard to express my thoughts and ideas is just as outrageous, and the First Amendment is irrelevant, because the Founding Fathers couldn't have fathomed what the "press" would become in the future, and what devices we would have at our disposal to express free speech and practice the religion of our choice. What makes the Second Amendment any less important than the First??? Many have argued that the Second Amendment helps insure that the rest of the Amendments are unmolested.

Go do some reading the next time you hear some nonsense about the relevance of the Second Amendment. Here's a good start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights