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Human Rights
vs. Civil Rights by Dennis
Jackson In discourse with our
opponents and our supporters in the area of our rights, often the discussion
evolves into an argument between civil and human rights.
I am not an attorney, nor do I have any experience in the area of law --
with the exception of being sued once or twice, but
I don�t think that counts! In any
event, I hope you bear with me. To quote our good friend and
mentor Alan Korwin, author of �Gun Laws of
America�, �Certain words hurt you when you talk about your rights
and liberties�. I hope to
illustrate to you how true this is and how we are at risk of losing all of our
rights and liberties by our misuse of the terms �human
rights�
and �civil
rights.� Ever since the 1960�s civil
rights has become a popular term in our social and political lexicon. I hope to successfully argue the point that my human rights
do not determine which seat I am allowed to sit in on a city bus. If you can convince me that
your teenage son or daughter's claim that the human right to come home with
enough tattoos to look like the Sunday funnies can be compared to my right to
own a gun, to speak, worship or associate freely, you have won this argument. If we refer back to our
founding documents, the Declaration of Independence states: �WE hold these
Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among them are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness�That to secure these Rights,
Governments are instituted among Men�� Enter the Bill of Rights
and our use of the term HUMAN Rights! Human
rights are natural rights, fundamental and universal. This means that they
cannot be repealed by any government. Civil
rights are individual rights which exist by virtue of legislative action and
consent of the people. Human rights
are what our Founding Fathers had in mind when they drafted the Bill of Rights. Our Bill of Rights was
created out of a need to address the concern among the States that the
Constitution did not fully �prevent misconstruction or abuse of it�s
powers, that further
declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added�� There was no inference in the
Bill of Rights that a �sporting purpose� to the Second Amendment has the
same weight of meaning as a �free press� or �freedom of assembly� in the
First Amendment. If the liberals
interpreted the Second Amendment in the same way they interpret the First
Amendment, every man, woman and child would be required to carry a gun.
This is where firearm owners lose ground in the war of words.
By the use of �civil� rights when we are arguing for our firearm
freedoms, we are in fact incorrectly �admitting� to the power of the
government to further restrict our human rights. When the social experimenters
and miscreants in Washington, D.C. interchange these terms we can expect big
trouble. We need to consider the
real meanings of these two terms. Any
gun owner who doesn�t carefully consider how they use these two terms, places
the rest of us in grave danger of losing all our rights and liberties. According to Barron�s law
dictionary CIVIL RIGHTS: �Rights
given, defined, and circumscribed by laws enacted by civilized communities�
Also, defined as rights of a citizen or citizens, and laws relating to
the private rights of individuals and to legal actions involving these.� Sounds good doesn�t it? Now let�s take a look at
the definition of HUMAN RIGHTS: �As the right to
organize politically, worship freely, (and to own a gun). Thought of as
belonging inherently to each human being and not to be taken away or interfered
with by arbitrary or repressive government action.�
In other words, your right to
�Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness�!
Rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights! The holocaust victims in Nazi
Germany had human rights. However,
they were victims of a government that did not recognize these rights.
A felon in the United States does not have a �civil right� to vote,
or hold a public office, in some cases. But
he still has his �human rights�. Curiously,
a convicted felon is denied his human right to defend himself with a firearm! (This is because we have allowed our government to define
firearm ownership as a civil right, and therefore a privilege to be denied by
whim of the government.) At this time the United
Nations is contemplating a �Declaration of Human Rights�.
Notice that this declaration does not address our right to keep and bear
arms, or the right of a citizen to defend one�s life.
Nor does it include other liberties that we take for granted.
This proves that citizens need to carefully guard their liberties to
ensure that their HUMAN RIGHTS are not infringed upon by
not-so-well-meaning governments. If we as lovers of our
liberties allow ourselves to use the terms that our opponents use, we are
destined to lose the war. If we inaccurately admit and mistakenly accept the belief
that our Second Amendment rights are �civil rights�, we are in fact giving
tacit approval to government to limit, deny and amend our most basic and sacred
of rights. At that point our right
to own a firearm or defend ourselves becomes a privilege, to be granted or
denied by government! Let's
pass on that one, yes? The correct and continual use of the term �human
right� will spread with consistent use and public application; begin doing
your part, today. In defense of the Second, Dennis Jackson |
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