Monday, March 23, 2009

Urkel's Second Amendment...

Y'know,
For a guy who is supposed the be The Smartest President Evar, and who spent 12 years as professor teaching Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago Law School, Urkel has absolutely no understanding of the second amendment.

Whitehouse.gov US Constitution Site



...
"The Second Amendment gives citizens the right to bear arms."
...

This is entirely incorrect.
The Bill of Rights does not give the people ANYTHING, and I doubt you could find a valid Supreme Court decision that backs up that claim.

The Bill of Rights exists as a list of limitations on the Federal Government. A list of things it cannot do. It does not grant anything to the people.

It should read:
"The Second Amendment provides that the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

The current wording implies, and in fact states, that the Constitution GIVES rights, when the Founders clearly held that we are "endowed by our Creator" with our rights and that the purpose of government is to secure those Creator-endowed rights.

In short, the Constitution enshrines and protects our rights, but does not "give" rights. That is a dangerous misinterpretation, because the uninformed citizen might fall prey to the belief that government could also "take away" rights.

As a "Constitutional Scholar" Urkel ought to be ashamed of this garbage on Whitehouse.Gov.

So, now we wait for some backpedaling and for some low-level staffer to get thrown under the Hopenchange Express...

-----------

As I look at the rest of the Bill of Rights there are some pretty hideous "interpretations" of the 4th and 5th amendments too...
I'm not going to spoon-feed you...

Look it up here.




TBG- ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE

1 comment:

T-Rav said...

You bring up a good point... A lot of people don't know what is in the Bill of Rights or the Constitution. These people take information at face value when they see this stuff on a web site or a news broadcast. About 6 months ago, I downloaded an iPhone app titled the US Manual. It has everything you need to know - Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Federalist Papers and a whole lot more. So, if I see or hear something quoted from the Constitution - I verify with my trusty app.