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Thread: Rights and Responsibilities

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    Team Gunsnet Platinum 06/2016 ltorlo64's Avatar

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    Rights and Responsibilities

    More of what I do when my wife is gone. Hope this makes sense.

    Rights and Responsibilities

    There is much talk these days about what someone’s rights are. Based on the things that are being added to the list of rights, I thought it good to take a moment and see what a right is, what it is not, and what personal responsibility is.

    Let’s start by looking at the definition of a right. Even before we do this, we have to understand what is meant by a right. If you look in the dictionary for the definition of right, you will find ideas such as something that is correct, a position on a body, or a geometric angle. This is not what is being discussed. The rights that people have been arguing about are what John Locke in 1698 called “natural rights”.

    Natural rights are granted by God or by nature and are those things that we have to do to live, that do not affect others ability to live. For example, freedom of speech is required for us to live as it is with speech that we can barter for things we need or tell someone that we have been wronged. Being able to speak does not take away someone else’s ability live and to speak, so it is a right. Natural rights do not need a law to enforce and they are universal. If you live in a jungle your natural rights are the same as if you lived in a metropolitan city. The ability to practice our natural rights is what our Founding Fathers defined as freedom. Freedom to them was the ability to live as they saw fit as long as they did not negatively affect anyone else.

    The Founding Fathers of the United States, after ratifying the Constitution went about identifying the natural rights of a person. In fact, the decision to do this was the only thing that got the Constitution ratified by the original states. Some thought the Constitution by itself did not do enough to limit the government’s ability to take away freedoms from the people. The Founding Fathers identified 10 rights necessary for a free people which were added as amendments to the Constitution on the 15th of December, 1791. These rights are collectively known as the Bill of Rights. The framers of the Constitution were not giving these rights to the people, but were identifying them to the people and to the government. The purpose of identifying them to government was to ensure they were remembered and not taken away by governmental over reach. The Bill of Rights identified the following items; freedom of religion, press, and expression; right to keep and bear arms; freedom from being forced to house soldiers; freedom from government searching or seizing their property; no person shall be brought to trial for a crime without a Grand Jury agreeing to probable cause and a person can only be tried once for the same crime; the right to a speedy trial and to confront witnesses; right to a trial by jury for civil cases; excessive bails and cruel and unusual punishments banned; a statement that this is not necessarily an all encompassing list of rights; and a reminder to the federal government that if the Constitution did not specifically grant authority in an area, that authority is reserved for the states.

    Now that we have seen what we are discussing when we talk about a right, what about all these other things people say is their “right”, for example health care, food, or shelter. Are these rights or are they something else?

    I would argue that they are something else. A more appropriate term for these items are responsibilities, not rights. The definition of responsibility is much easier to find. According to Merriam-Webster’s a responsibility is;
    1: the quality or state of being responsible: as a: moral, legal, or mental accountability
    b : reliability, trustworthiness
    2: something for which one is responsible: burden

    So, based on the definition of a right, while health care is important, it cannot be a right. This is because in order for me to get someone else to give me health care I have to take something from them, or take part of their life. This contradicts the premise of a natural right. Health care is important though, especially if you are responsible for the life of someone else, like a child. This falls squarely under the definition of responsibility, and as a responsibility it means that it is something that you have to work for (your burden) it is not something granted to you just by being alive.

    The next question I think of is, are rights and responsibilities related? Actually they are. First, let’s look at how rights are related to responsibilities. For every right, there is a responsibility which if not carried out can cause you to lose your right. For example, if you use a firearm in the commission of a crime, you will lose the right to “keep and bear arms” because you used the firearm in an irresponsible manner. Because you have shown you cannot be trusted with that right it will be taken away. To practice the right of free speech I have the responsibility of ensuring that what is say is true. If I purposely lie about someone I can be held liable for the harm that I cause with my free speech. So, with every right comes responsibility, and I would argue that the responsibility is great.

    What about responsibilities, how are they related to rights? Let’s take the responsibility of finding shelter. One of the ways I can use to acquire shelter is to negotiate with someone on the price the shelter will cost. In order to properly negotiate I need to be able to speak freely. So, while shelter is not a right but a responsibility, the right to free speech will help me meet my responsibility.

    Another difference between rights and responsibilities are that rights are about the person, responsibilities are more encompassing. As I stated about rights, they are things we have to do to live, which do not affect someone else’s ability to live. Responsibilities can affect others ability to live. An example of this is a doctor. They are trained well beyond the normal person in how to help people who are sick or injured. With this knowledge comes a responsibility to help people in need. If they were to come upon an automobile accident, they are morally responsible to help the people hurt in the accident without first negotiating payment for medical services. The person who is hurt does not have the right, however, to force the doctor to help. After the emergency is over though, it is then the responsibility of the injured people to determine a way to pay for the time, the life, they will take from the doctor to make them better.

    The next question is what happens when we abrogate our responsibilities and expect them to be performed by government? When we fail to take on our responsibilities we give up our rights, which in the end means we give up our freedoms. How is this possible? Let’s take freedom of speech again. If we abrogate our responsibility to defend our beliefs, or take an indefensible position, against people who disagree with us, and ask the government to defend us, this will affect our right to free speech. This will happen by government legislating for the side that complains to them that the other side cannot use certain arguments. A good example of this is “Hate Speech” laws. People could not defend their position so they went to the government and said it was not right that people should spread hate by their speech. This sounds like a considerate thing to do until you realize that to do this the government has to determine what is and is not acceptable to be discussed. By allowing government to do this we give up our right to free speech. It is only a matter of time then before government decides that speaking badly about what government is doing is not acceptable either.

    In the preceding paragraphs I have tried to remind people what a right is and why they are important. I have also endeavored to show the difference between a right and a responsibility as well as show how they are interrelated. Last, I argued that in asking government to fulfill our responsibilities we give up our rights. Understanding this is central to living as a free people. We are the only country on earth where freedom exists to such a great extent. It would be a shame to give it up because we did not understand the difference between such important concepts.
    "Nothing ever gets so bad that government "help" can't make it worse." Pat Garrett, March 22, 2014

    "HATE IS GOOD, WHEN ITS DIRECTED AT EVIL." PROBASCO, April 20, 2012

    I tried to push the envelope, but found that it was stationery.

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    Amen.

  3. #3
    Guns Network Lifetime Membership 01/2011 old Grump's Avatar

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    Rights is easy, responsibilities is the dang fly in the ointment. Especially for a generation that grew up without chores to do, more toys than they know what to do with and an aversion to raising a sweat doing anything but dancing or skate boarding.

    Roman Catholic, Life Member of American Legion, VFW, Wisconsin Libertarian party, Wi-FORCE, WGO, NRA, JPFO, GOA, SAF and CCRKBA


    "THE STATE THAT SEPARATES ITS SCHOLARS FROM IT WARRIORS WILL HAVE ITS THINKING DONE BY COWARDS AND ITS FIGHTING DONE BY FOOLS"

    THUCYDIDES.



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