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The first ten amendments to the US. Constitution, commonly known as the “Bill of Rights”, do not grant us any rights. The purpose of each amendment is to guarantee the rights the founding fathers, signers of the Declaration of Independence and the framers of the Constitution believed were “…unalienable Rights…” which no government shall deny a free people.
The first ten amendments to the Constitution are extremely important, too important with for us to meddle with at any time. They cannot be viewed as a list of individual laws from which we can pick and choose which we want to abide by and which we want to circumvent.
The first ten amendments must serve as a promise and a warning to the American People. They guarantee that “We the People” will remain free to govern ourselves and stand as a reminder to those who believe otherwise that “We the People” are empowered to govern ourselves through our elected officials. That these elected officials shall make no law that infringes upon the rights that the founders felt were the most important of all rights. This is a reminder that for over 200 years that our rights as citizens have been guaranteed, it is a reminder to the citizens of the world that America is truly the land of the free.
The Second Amendment states: "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."
Early American citizen militias have been replaced by an all volunteer professional military, however, this does not in any way, shape or form abate or alter the meaning of the key words incorporated into the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution, “…the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
While on the subject of the bill of rights, let us not forget the two most important amendments incorporated into the “Bill of Rights”:
Amendment 9
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment 10
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
As Thomas Jefferson wrote over 230 years ago, “A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.”
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