• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
  • WORLD DEMOCRACY
  • POLITICAL ART
  • more
    • election technology
    • money politics
    • political dissidents
    • THIRD PARTY
      • third party central
      • green party
      • justice party
      • libertarian party
    • voting methods
  • DC INFO
    • author central
    • about
    • advertise with DC
    • contact
    • privacy policy

Democracy Chronicles

“It’s Our Constitutional Right”

by Jake Legumina - December 26, 2015

FacebookTweetLinkedInPin

Constitutional Right

“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.”

–Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution                                                                        

I believe in our right as American citizens to own guns, to an extent.  What I don’t believe in is invalid arguments and hypocrisy.  Throughout my discussions with others on the highly debated topic of gun control, the most common argument against gun control that I encounter is, “It’s our constitutional right, and the government cannot take away our rights.”  Frankly, this argument upsets me.  It is a display of willful ignorance in regard to our civil liberties and the political climate we live in.

You either support the constitution or you don’t.  There is no common ground in between.  If you are to defend the constitution, then you should defend it to its fullest.  Since 2001, our country has gone under quite a transformation in terms of our civil liberties and rights as an American citizen, a transformation that has accelerated the increasing deprivation of our rights and freedoms as Americans.

Today, Donald Trump is the frontrunner among Republicans, and one of his core issues pertains to our Second Amendment right to own guns.  Donald Trump has also been in favor of monitoring and even closing down Mosques in the name of national security.  It’s worth mentioning that you have a better chance of being struck by lightning on your birthday than being killed in a terrorist attack.

Anyways, it’s the same people that wish to protect our Second Amendment rights while also simultaneously supporting the deprivation of the rights of other American citizens. Many of these supporters champion gun rights while hypocritically advocating for the suspending of other rights.  It is a hypocritical argument that is perceived to be concrete to gun activists nationwide.

Those that wish to claim this point of view fail to see the new world we live in and choose to live in ignorance purely for the sake of preserving their own ideologies.  A truly educated and informed citizenry would realize that our rights are under attack and have been under attack for over a century, resulting in the pseudo-democracy we live in today.

The Patriot Act has deprived us of our right to privacy.  The Sedition Act passed in 1917 has limited our rights to free speech and expression.  Peaceful protest and assembly has been restricted.  People are facing religious persecution.  Law enforcement regularly conducts unreasonable searches and seizures that lack probable cause, and our right to a representative democracy is lost.  The list goes on and on, it even extends to basic inalienable human rights which are granted to every person.  At the infamous Guantanamo Bay, people are being held who have done nothing wrong, and as if that wasn’t already enough, these same people are being tortured.  Apparently that’s acceptable because they’re terrorists.  If you didn’t already know, this is a worn out argument due to the fact that over half of the detainees presiding in Guantanamo have been cleared or haven’t even been charged. It’s a disgrace.

This is the reality of the “free” democracy we live in.  Where is the uproar over the rights we have already lost?  To those who choose to defend our second amendment rights, I challenge you to defend the rights we have already lost.

Happy Holidays!

FacebookTweetLinkedInPin

Filed Under: DC Authors Tagged With: Civil Rights, Founding Fathers, Religion and Democracy

About Jake Legumina

Jake Legumina writes for Democracy Chronicles from San Diego. Jake is also currently a senior at San Diego State University studying Sociology and Political Science with an emphasis in Public Law. Has dedicated his academic career to understanding American politics, specifically the American political economy.

Some highlighted Democracy Chronicles topics

Africa American Corruption American Local Elections American State Elections Asia Capitalism and Big Business Celebrity Politics China Democracy Charity Democracy Protests Democrats Dictatorships Education Election History Election Methods Election Security Election Transparency Europe Internet and Democracy Journalism and Free Speech Middle East Minority Voting Rights Money Politics New York City and State Elections Political Artwork Political Dissidents Political Lobbying Redistricting Republicans Russia Socialism and Labor Social Media and Democracy South America Spying and Privacy Supreme Court Third Party Voter Access Voter ID Voter Registration Voter Suppression Voter Turnout Voting Technology Women Voting Rights Worldwide Worldwide Corruption

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Austin Brooks says

    January 5, 2016 at 1:46 am

    You might like Buckley and some of his earlier defenses in the early Cold War era. For him, political freedom cannot come without the safety of the national people first. As for the Sedition Act, United States v. Eichman and Texas v. Johnson iterated that an idea like that was unconstitutional.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Home | DC AUTHORS | “It’s Our Constitutional Right”

Primary Sidebar

Advertise button

PODCAST: Baby Boomers And American Gerontocracy

By Jenna Spinelle May 23, 2022

Older and younger voters are increasingly at odds: Republicans as a whole skew gray-haired, and within the Democratis, the left-leaning youth vote.

A Dangerous Reprise Of American Exceptionalism In Ukraine

By Jamie Lampidis May 15, 2022

The stakes are too high to cave into Putin’s phantasmatic imperial play, and too high to believe that this war can be won by arming Ukrainians.

democracy chronicles newsletter

DC AUTHORS

On The Coming End Of Roe v. Wade

By Peter J. Dellolio May 11, 2022

Anyone who says that the evolution of law has nothing to do with politics is either very corrupt or very stupid. Laws evolved through the centuries.

Goodbye Roe v. Wade, Goodbye Rule Of Law

By Andrew Straw May 5, 2022

Congress should impeach judges who act like that because it is not good behavior, and they were asked not to act that way when they were confirmed.

PODCAST: Debating The Future Of Debates

By Jenna Spinelle May 4, 2022

We love a good debate — and have certainly had plenty of them on this show. But how effective are they in today’s media and political landscape?

What “Pro-Palestine” Student Groups Get Wrong

By David Anderson, J.D. May 3, 2022

Back then – as now – this fit into a “colonialist” narrative of European Jews oppressing Arabs – an easy, eye pleasing but intellectually lazy fit.

Examining Government As A “Necessary Evil”

By Gary Berton April 29, 2022

Thomas Paine defines government as separate from society, and indeed if society functioned perfectly there would be no need for government.

Ukrainian And Polish History: Fighting The Empires

By Maxim Sidorenko April 26, 2022

On February 24th, Russia started an unprovoked war against Ukraine. It has become one more attempt of the empire to demolish the Ukrainian state.

PODCAST: What Student Debt Says About Democratic Institutions

By Jenna Spinelle April 26, 2022

In a new book, Josh Mitchell draws alarming parallels to the housing crisis, showing the catastrophic consequences student debt has had on families.

MORE FROM OUR AUTHORS

VISIT OUR POLITICAL ART SECTION:

dc political art

DEMOCRACY CULTURE

Kenyan 'Cartooning For Peace' To Draw Africa Towards Democracy

Kenyan ‘Cartooning For Peace’ To Draw Africa Towards Democracy

May 17, 2022

Cartooning is an art that has been playing a major role in illustrating stories in different ways, from health to politics, and even sports.

Anxious Leaders Influence Their Followers' Anxiety, Even Online

Anxious Leaders Influence Their Followers’ Anxiety, Even Online

May 17, 2022

Organizational leader’s tweets can influence employee anxieties and this effect is more prominent since the rise of COVID-19, study.

North Korea Cracks Down On 'Capitalist' Pop Culture

North Korea Cracks Down On ‘Capitalist’ Pop Culture

May 6, 2022

North Korea has increased its campaign against “capitalist” style clothing, others, in broader crackdown on foreign pop culture.

DiCaprio, Ruffalo Urge Brazilians To Vote, Irking Bolsonaro

DiCaprio, Ruffalo Urge Brazilians To Vote, Irking Bolsonaro

May 6, 2022

Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo joined other celebrities making a final push for voters in Brazil to register to vote.

Mock M&M Election Teaches Alaskans About Ranked Voting

Mock M&M Election Teaches Alaskans About Ranked Voting

April 26, 2022

There are paper cups with eight different kinds of M&M near the entrance to Amalga Distillery in Juneau for a mock ranked choice vote.

MORE CULTURE

VISIT OUR US DEMOCRACY SECTION:

American Democracy