Recent letters on the gun debate have presented a false interpretation of the Constitution regarding gun ownership.
They have stated that the Second Amendment was never intended to grant the right of firearm ownership to the general public. They are technically correct on this point, but only because the Bill of Rights was not intended as a means of granting rights to the citizens. Its original intent was to ensure that the inherent rights of the people would not be trampled by an overzealous government, a rather important distinction.The Constitution was an instrument meant to establish the federal government and place limits on its power, not on the citizenry. Its authors assumed that all natural rights and privileges were inherent in the people, and that no just government could have any power except as delegated to it by the people.
To quote the Declaration of Independence: "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 these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
From the perspective of the Founding Fathers, the federal government cannot have any right or power that the people do not possess naturally. If the people do not have the right to bear arms in self-defense, then in principle neither does the government. The philosophical foundations of the American Revolution have pretty much been obliterated. The words written by the Founding Fathers no longer mean what they say, but what those who seek power wish them to say.
Kerry Thompson
North Salt Lake