Second Amendment

                The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the Right to Bear Arms contained in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This right is essential to maintaining the freedoms given to us by the Founders of our nation.

                Nelson Lund at The Daily Signal shares his thoughts about this “vital element of the liberal order” in an article titled “Time for Conservative-Intellectuals to Get Comfortable with the Right to Bear Arms.” He says that “the founders understood that those who hold political power almost always will strive to reduce the freedom of those they rule and that many of the ruled always will be tempted to trade their liberty for empty promises of security.”

                Lund continues, “The Constitution, including the Second Amendment, is a device designed to frustrate the domineering tendencies of the politically ambitious. The Second Amendment also plays an important role in fostering the kind of civic virtue that resists the cowardly urge to trade liberty for an illusion of safety.

                “Armed citizens take responsibility for their own security, thereby exhibiting and cultivating the self-reliance and vigorous spirit that ultimately are indispensable for genuine self-government.”

                I encourage you to read the entire article. Lund says that we must understand liberty principles in order to defend them. His article helps us to understand the reasons for his statement.