Doh!

Guns Magazine, July, 2006 by David Codrea

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined."--Patrick Heny

This warning was issued during the Virginia Ratifying Convention debates on the adoption of the Constitution. Suspicious of centralized power and the tyranny it could enable, the Anti-Federalists would not accept the new form of government without a Bill of Rights.

So how have we done guarding the public liberty?

The sad evidence is most Americans don't even know what rights are. We speak of the Second Amendment granting a right to keep and bear arms--unaware of the Founders' understanding of rights as "unalienable" and "endowed by our Creator," that is, inherent in the condition of being human. We have seemingly forgotten that governments are created by men, with powers delegated from the people. Rights are not privileges--that if granted could be revoked--dispensed from on high.

The shameful truth is, most of our countrymen--and a good number of gun owners--are ignorant of basic rights that--in another era--would have provoked rebellion should any have been haughty enough to "approach that jewel."

We accept as legitimate requirements for authorization to purchase firearms, submitting ourselves to eligibility checks and sanctions, when the government's only clear direction regarding arms is that it has no authority to infringe on their possession. We accept as lawful mandates forbidding our ownership of militia suitable weapons--abdicating responsibility for "the security of a free state" to the very body the Founders deemed most in need of an ultimate check on power. We seek permission and pay fees for the privilege of bearing arms where allowed and risk ruin for bearing them where it's forbidden. We don't even question who has legitimate delegated authority to rule in this regard.

But these are different times. Things have changed.

We accept this as true, and don't ask what about human nature has changed. Has humanity truly demonstrated a maturity that distinguishes our era from those that preceded us?

And if the Second Amendment is no longer applicable, what other rights have also grown obsolete through neglect? Do we even know what it is we so cavalierly surrender?

"Americans know more about The Simpsons TV show than the US Constitution's First Amendment," the BBC News reported about a McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum poll.

"Only one in four could name more than one of the five freedoms it upholds but more than half could name at least two members of the cartoon family ... 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson characters [but] just one in 1,000 people could name all five First Amendment freedoms."

"It gives me the right to free speech and the right to shoot guns," an unidentified man told a Los Angeles radio station following up with its own informal poll. "Because I say what I want and I own a gun."

"You are inevitably ruined," Mr. Henry would say.

"Doh!" the heirs of liberty fittingly reply.