Breitbart – by AWR HawkinsOn March 26, the Tampa Bay Times responded to the numerous pro-Second Amendment bills making their way through the Florida legislature by suggesting that “gun rights are not absolute.”
In other words, “shall not be infringed” does not mean “shall not be infringed.”
According to the Times, the numerous gun rights bills–especially campus carry–show that Republican legislators are controlled by the NRA and do not understand that if certain limits are not placed on Second Amendment rights, public safety is sacrificed.
In an attempt to prove this premise, they touch on the “contrived” arguments for campus carry–arguments that rest on the idea of armed women stopping “murderers and rapists.”
The problem with this line of thinking is that conservatives believe women are as capable of stopping murderers and rapists as men are, given one important tool–a gun. Conservatives do not agree with the Times, Salon, Shannon Watts, Moms Demand Action, Everytown for Gun Safety, and others who pretend the idea of arming women is foolish.
Their attackers are armed, so why not level the playing field?
Yet to be fair, the Times‘ opposition to campus carry goes deeper than the simplistic view that women cannot handle being armed. Their opposition ultimately rests on their conviction that “gun rights are not absolute,” the belief that the phrase “shall not be infringed” does not mean shall not be infringed at all.
In this, they are mistaken.
On March 18, Breitbart News reported on an October 1788 letter James Madison wrote to Thomas Jefferson–a letter in which Madison explained that certain rights needed to be hedged in by a Bill of Rights because they were “essential.” Among those “essential” rights was the right to keep and bear arms. Madison wrote that hedging gun rights in would protect the exercise of those rights from the “whims” of the “majority.”
These very “whims” are on display when the Times points to groups that oppose campus carry, groups that oppose the open carry of firearms during a disaster, and groups that oppose the legality of carrying firearms in one’s car without a permit. In doing these things, they want to give the impression that the “majority” opposes expanding the exercise of Second Amendment rights.
But Madison’s message is clear: we are not to be concerned with the “whims” of the “majority,” be that majority real or imagined. Rather, the majority is concerned with protecting and enjoying the exercise of the right to keep and bear arms.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
Traitors, enough said! Tampa Bay Times earned a spot on “the list”.
oh like hell it doesnt mean what it says .. come to my place and see if that crap flies
The first 10 amendments of the constitution are the bill of rights.These right are god given rights that no government has any right to take away! The Tampa Bay Times is guilty of treason against the constitution and we the people and should not be in the news (propaganda) business.
“Their opposition ultimately rests on their conviction that “gun rights are not absolute,”…”
And on those grounds alone, THEY’LL be convicted.
Of TREASON!
“On March 26, the Tampa Bay Times responded to the numerous pro-Second Amendment bills making their way through the Florida legislature by suggesting that “gun rights are not absolute.”
TREASON! May they and their Zionist masters who own them burn in Hell! 😡
I live in the Tampa bay area and have seen it become a police state for sure. Thousands of cops in this county alone not to mention its a tri county area crawling with pigs everywhere you turn. Have a DHS headquarters within spitting distances of the airport run ways too. The sheriff here has his tongue so far up DHS ass and they work hand in hand when ever they get the chance.All the new schools being built look like little prisons and they are ran like little prisons too teaching the agenda 21 BS as hard as they can. This is going on all over the country and its a lot more than just a Tampa Bay problem ,its a country wide problem and the militant pigs are for sure going to get a lot worse than they are now! As far as fixing this in the kangaroo courts or at the ballot box that is laughable. I’ve seen what 45 years of voting on my part has achieved and its not a GD thing for the better and has given these thugs long enough to assemble the police state we live in today. Cops want to see why they are so disrespected.its because they earned it with their thug ass gang like behavior. They want to see the real problem its as close as a mirror! The cops that were here when I was a kid are long gone and the new crop are criminals lead by more criminals.What rules here is money just like the rest of this country and the citizens are just prey to collect that money from for the traitors feeding on the system.
This is all very simple. The Bill of Rights, also known as the first 10 amendments to the US constitution, are non-negotialble, not granted by a government nor by consent of ones peers; but by the spear that a man carries and uses to defend the basic rights of all free men. The 2nd DOES mean “Shall not be infringed!”; under any and all circumstances. It is by the exercise of the 2nd that the 2nd is realized and all others preserved. No man’s permission is necessary for one man to use deadly force to defend his rights from those who would seek to enslave him. Period, end of story. There is no debate. Come try to take and you’ll get it, business end first.