Naturally Right

 

I took this meme from Reddit because it’s funny. I think it provides us with a window into the way American citizens incorrectly view the founding. This is the Constitutional Convention, it has to be or the joke doesn’t work. Did America's founders sit down and discuss how much freedom to permit to the newly formed states, people? Who did they try to protect, the citizens or the government?

America is fundamentally different because it recognized the rights of individuals and restricted the government's ability to hamper them. The idea that the founders 'decided' to allow guns gets it completely backward. The right to own guns and speak freely are inherent rights, or inalienable. In other words they can't be taken away. Why? because they are God given (natural) and an essential part of what makes people human. If God created humans with certain inherent freedoms than who can really take them? Can you steal a person’s character or just suppress it?

I remember reading a newspaper opinion years ago that took a dim view of the ultra rich in America. I think the point of it was that ‘we shouldn't be overly excited when someone like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett gives money to charity. The gifts are appreciated but the largess of the rich is because of this country’s willingness to provide opportunities for them. ‘We' as a society allowed them to make the money through friendly laws and easy regulation. Nonsense. It’s true they had the good fortune to apply themselves in a country that respects diligence. They also might have had a better start through education or skill, Gates had both. None of that is because “We” the planners allowed it.

 It's an attitude that puts the authority into the hands of a government (planners) and not the 'consent of the governed'. It's like the saying the government allowed you to become rich, when the truth is our laws support the ability of citizens to pursue happiness. Just because countries everywhere got this wrong doesn't mean we should too. It’s important to see the Constitution as a complete break from that philosophy of kings and tyrants. It makes the individual the centerpiece, the rational being seeking liberty. The Constitution was meant to put restrictions on government and allow natural processes to flourish. Natural processes included freely worshiping God or not, setting up a business or working for one, buying and selling property.  

Individuals get hung up on things like guns because of the danger they pose in the hands of criminals. But they miss the essential part of the Second Amendment which is not that the founders 'allowed us to have guns'. This is insulting. They recognized that restrictions on a person's life and property were not within their purview. It was none of their damn business and they knew it. So they put hefty restrictions on the government around certain things, speech and firearms are just some of the most important.

We can argue all day about what limits are appropriate on speech and weapons. Courts have mostly held very lose restrictions on speech and thankfully, guns laws are getting looser all the time. Most people don't believe you should be allowed to keep a Mark 19 grenade launcher in your garage mounted on an old F150. Although it's tough for me to think of a better way to spend a Saturday than driving through open land firing at targets. Cities have restrictions that rural communities would never have. It makes sense to a degree but if it infringes on an individual's basic freedom it has to go. The Second Amendment is not without restrictions though and courts constantly hear new arguments.

You aren’t allowed to keep a howitzer in your driveway. This is primarily an order of magnitude problem. Firearms don't pose this enormous downside. It's why we restrict fully automatic weapons with some exceptions. A lot of my libertarian friends think drugs fall into the same category and should come with no restrictions. I don't, but that's a discussion for another day. I understand the logic, but drugs to me are the howitzer that kills thousands even if most people can get high and function like an adult. 

None of this is to say that our laws are perfect or beneficial to everyone. But the principle that the founders (Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton) were concerned with what to grant the new citizens is plainly wrong. They always began by restricting the government first.

I know the meme is just a joke. It's a funny way to show how different our country is from others. We love guns. We love to talk. We never shut up actually. But we live in an age when so much is planned and orchestrated that it's important to remember the core principle of the founding, individual liberty through natural rights.