Saturday, July 12, 2008

Bill of Rights *void where prohibited.

Our Bill of Rights is the ‘contract with the people’ that our Founding Fathers had the foresight to spell out to protect the rights and freedoms of all citizens, present and future from encroachments from their own governments.

The first sentence in the Bill or Rights restricts Congress and the powers it may exercise over the people. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging freedom of speech; or the right of the people to peacefully assemble...”

It is understood that the First Amendment is uniformly respected across all 50 states. An individual doesn’t have to worry about exercising or restraining free speech when crossing state lines. You can pretty much express yourself or peacefully assemble where ever you are in the United States.

Similarly in all 50 states, no soldier will be quartered in a person’s house with out the owner’s consent. Be it New York City, Washington D.C. or any where else. That’s the Third Amendment, valid from coast to coast including Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico.

There are no geographical or regional exceptions to the protections afforded U.S. citizens by the 4th amendment which guarantees us protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

As a matter of fact the 5th Amendment, 6th and all others that follow are guaranteed to apply to all citizens equally no matter where one lives, travels or happens to be in the United States.

Ahh, but then lets go back to the 2nd Amendment. That part of the constitution that the Supreme Court recently decreed is still part of the Constitution. The right of the people to keep and bear arms has also been declared to be an individual right, *except of course where currently prohibited. The 2nd Amendment is the solitary Constitutional right of every American that does not apply equally to all Americans nor does it apply equally to all geographic locations. Try crossing state lines with your legal handgun and you could be committing a felony. Even within a State, the 2nd Amendment is often not respected. For instance a New York State resident with a “right to cary permit” (NY granting you permission to exercise a right you are already constitutionally guaranteed)is banned from entering New York City with their gun.

It’s time to stop the selective denial of our Constitutional right to keep and bear arms by State, local governments and even private organizations.

As common citizens, we need to stand up and remember that “governments derive their just powers, only from the consent of the governed” and repel the long train of abuses and usurpations we are voluntarily submitting ourselves to, by our very silence!

While we still have Second Amendment rights, I urge you to speak up and exercise your First Amendment right to denounce this unconstitutional violation to our Bill of Rights.