Sunday, March 25, 2018

Using my 1st Amendment Rights

I have to admit that I am more than a little confused by many Americans' stance on protecting constitutional rights. Moral arguments aside, it seems that we are only interested in guarding our constitutional rights and are pretty vocal and petty about the rights of others.

The NRA and many that oppose any kind of gun control have demonized the teens (and adults) for marching to support gun control. How is it that your 2nd amendment rights outweigh their 1st amendment rights? People seem pretty big on their own free speech as they hurl insults and degrading comments, but ignore the the right to peaceful assembly and protest.
Neither do opponents of any gun control seem to realize that an unabated right to bear arms is already non-existent. There are already prohibitions against owning many weapons of war. Adding some newer military style weapons wouldn't be a new thing.

I get that everybody is entitled to their opinion, but sometimes the things people say and do are so one sided that it's difficult to consider anything else they have to say as meaningful.

Every freedom has a cost, -- and we surrender freedom on a daily basis. We give up the right to speed down neighborhood streets because we value our lives and don't want others speeding down our street. We obey traffic lights and stop signs or accept the consequences of being ticketed when we violate those laws. In essence, every law that we have is an infringement on our freedom. We accept this because we are a society and we watch out for one another. When we agree to these society imposed infringements to our freedom, we can all drive, shop, be entertained, or go to school in relative safety. When that safety is repeatedly compromised in a similar way, it seems reasonable to look to new laws that will restore it.

But there will be a cost.
As a society, we just need to figure out if we're willing to pay it.

John <><

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