Two eye-opening decisions in the same week

Goodness, what is going on in this democracy? Last week the State Senate followed the lead of the Assembly and overwhelmingly passed the Junior Hunting and Trapping bill which would allow adult-mentored young outdoors people to hunt big game at age 14. And then the Supreme Court rules that the Second Amendment is an “individual right” that allows all law-abiding and mentally sound citizens to own a firearm, should they so choose.

The landmark decision by the Supreme Court regarding the “lawful meaning” of the Second Amendment should be cause for everyone, gun owner or not, to feel proud to be an American (although criminals may not think so). There’s been so much written and spoken, both pro and con, since the ruling’s announcement, we might tend to forget that the first ten Amendments to the U.S. Constitution are known as this democracy’s Bill of Rights. And they are intended to be the rights of the individual citizens, and that government is prohibited from riding roughshod over them.

Stop and consider just how critical these first ten Amendments are, regardless of the times, and also how foresighted our founders were in adopting them, knowing well enough that these ten individual rights were then and still are insurance that our government could never evolve into a Totalitarianism where it regulates nearly every aspect of public and private life (although I know it often seems that way these days). And they also had faith in the nation’s population that, given these rights, it wouldn’t fall into anarchy.

The Bill of Rights limits the powers of the Federal government of the United States, protecting the rights of all citizens, residents and visitors on United States territory. It protects the freedoms of speech, press, and religion; the right to keep and bear arms; the freedom of assembly; the freedom to petition; and prohibits unreasonable search and seizure; cruel and unusual punishment; and compelled self-incrimination. It also prohibits Congress from making any law respecting establishment of religion and prohibits it from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. In Federal criminal cases, it requires indictment by grand jury for any capital or “infamous crime,” guarantees a speedy public trial with an impartial jury composed of members of the state or judicial district in which the crime occurred, and prohibits double jeopardy.