Dr. Thomas Sowell on Gun Control

Yesterday, in commenting on gun-control laws, Dr. Thomas Sowell (one of the wisest men I know of) wrote, "....there is no reason why the Second Amendment should be the last word....the Second Amendment can be repealed...."

I believe that repeal of the Second Amendment would make no difference regarding gun rights. The founders worked on the concept that we "are endowed by [our] Creator with certain unalienable rights...." Our rights, coming from God (nature for the non-believers), (including that described in the Second Amendment) pre-exist the Constitution and therefore could not have been created by the Constitution.

The Constitution was designed to create a limited government to protect -- not create -- those rights. While rights in other nations are metered by their governments, most of our founders saw no need to define our rights -- since they come from God.

Some of the founders, however, wisely had little trust in government and insisted on the ten amendments we call the Bill of Rights to ensure that government would honor at least those few enumerated God-given rights. Those who expected and trusted the government to stay within its constitutionally-defined bounds saw no need for those ten amendments. The Constitution would have not been passed without the promise of the Bill of Rights.

We have the Second Amendment only because some of the founders didn't trust the government -- not to grant a new right. They were wise and prescient.