Rights, Liberty, and the Path to Hell
As I wrote last week, inalienable rights are rights that cannot be taken from us by anyone, including government, because they are given to us by God. They are integral to humanity. They can be infringed but they cannot be transferred. They are ours forever.
Supreme among our rights is free will. The right to choose our destiny is so primary to being human that even God will not violate it. Free will was his idea. Consequently, if you want nothing to do with God now or in eternity, that is your right. He will not impose his graces upon you now nor his heavenly home upon you after death. The path to Hell is paved with the decision to reject God.
Knowing this—that free will is supreme among our rights and a characteristic of being human—explains why infringement of it engenders such blistering universal outrage. To violate our free will is to deny our humanity, and to deny humanity is to denigrate who we are.
Two unenviable classes of people, prisoners and slaves, are systematically denied free will by their governments. The prisoner may bear some blame for his or her condition, but the slave never deserves to lose rights. The plight of the slave is the fiercest injustice to humanity.
Prisoners and slaves have a few things in common. They have been stripped of their 1) free will; 2) possessions; and 3) weapons. The loss of these things gives the oppressor control. The oppressed must have their weapons confiscated because no one chooses to be a prisoner or a slave. Either condition must be imposed and maintained by force.
That’s why gun control is really people control. The founders of the United States didn’t insert the Second Amendment into the Constitution so that we can hunt. The Constitution was written to establish a new form of government. From this context we know that framers were concerned about government oppression and loss of liberty (“free state”) that would result if the populace were to be stripped of firearms. When the governed lack the means to defend themselves, the government grows bold, even tyrannical. History confirms this. Josef Stalin of Russia confiscated civilian guns in 1929. Mao Tze Tung of China confiscated them in 1935. Adolf Hitler of Germany confiscated them in 1938. Millions of citizens of these countries citizens were decimated by their government because they lacked a means to defend themselves. They lacked guns.
A hallmark of free people is their ability to defend themselves. Self-defense is critical to liberty because free will—liberty—is infringed by force. Government is force.
Supreme among our rights is free will. The right to choose our destiny is so primary to being human that even God will not violate it. Free will was his idea. Consequently, if you want nothing to do with God now or in eternity, that is your right. He will not impose his graces upon you now nor his heavenly home upon you after death. The path to Hell is paved with the decision to reject God.
Knowing this—that free will is supreme among our rights and a characteristic of being human—explains why infringement of it engenders such blistering universal outrage. To violate our free will is to deny our humanity, and to deny humanity is to denigrate who we are.
Two unenviable classes of people, prisoners and slaves, are systematically denied free will by their governments. The prisoner may bear some blame for his or her condition, but the slave never deserves to lose rights. The plight of the slave is the fiercest injustice to humanity.
Prisoners and slaves have a few things in common. They have been stripped of their 1) free will; 2) possessions; and 3) weapons. The loss of these things gives the oppressor control. The oppressed must have their weapons confiscated because no one chooses to be a prisoner or a slave. Either condition must be imposed and maintained by force.
That’s why gun control is really people control. The founders of the United States didn’t insert the Second Amendment into the Constitution so that we can hunt. The Constitution was written to establish a new form of government. From this context we know that framers were concerned about government oppression and loss of liberty (“free state”) that would result if the populace were to be stripped of firearms. When the governed lack the means to defend themselves, the government grows bold, even tyrannical. History confirms this. Josef Stalin of Russia confiscated civilian guns in 1929. Mao Tze Tung of China confiscated them in 1935. Adolf Hitler of Germany confiscated them in 1938. Millions of citizens of these countries citizens were decimated by their government because they lacked a means to defend themselves. They lacked guns.
A hallmark of free people is their ability to defend themselves. Self-defense is critical to liberty because free will—liberty—is infringed by force. Government is force.
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