Most of the time, when people talk about “civil rights” in the media, they completely leave out the right to keep and bear arms. However, that isn’t always the case. From this article on ABC News, when a Jewish man was asked why he owned a gun “for protection”:
“As a civil rights advocate, I know that at some point words are not going to be enough, when people are kicking down your door to pull you out of your house because you’re Jewish or black or gay. You can’t be pro-civil rights without being pro guns.”
It is deeply gratifying to me that there are some people who do in fact, “get it”. The rest of the article is worth reading as well; but it isn’t the focus of today’s blog entry. No, what I’m really talking about is civil rights. Obviously, I’m a proponent of the 2nd Amendment; I really do believe that it means what it says, and that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
However, sometimes I feel like while we’re out campaigning for the 2nd Amendment, the other parts of the Bill of Rights get lost in the shuffle. I believe you have a right to burn the flag, and I have a right to call you a cockwrangler if you do. I have a right to be secure from unwarranted search and seizure, and you have a right to pray to whomever you wish. Those are rights.
People in the pro-2A movement often refer to the 2nd as the Amendment which protects the rest of the Bill of Rights. I don’t entirely agree with that characterization; because to violate any of the individual amendments, you pretty much have to violate two or three others as well. It is of tremendous importance that the gun rights community defend against all attempted violations of our civil rights – not just the one we really like.
One of these days, the ACLU and the NRA will stand side-by-side as pro-civil rights organizations. That would probably be the same day that a flight of pigs will pass a 747 at 15,000 feet.
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