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To be clear, the Bill of Rights is about protecting ourselves FROM our government, not about the rights of the government. When you read Federalist 45 is there is any doubt about the Founders intent and fear of and desire to limit a strong federal power?  That the right to keep and bear arms is the SECOND amendment listed tell us the Founders understood its importance.

Remember, “We the People” empower our government to govern us, it is decidedly not the other way around. The Constitution was written by a Virginian who had a healthy regard for the new nation’s government, understanding its necessity, while also fearing it and its ever-growing encroachment on the lives of the citizenry and having a strong desire to limit its power.

In the context of the Bill of Rights being created to protect the citizenry from tyranny, and there is no other context for it to be considered, it is logical that citizens can have access to the same kind of things to which government has access. This only makes sense.

A closer look at our laws and the reality of the First and Second Amendments shows a clear similarity of the government and the people’s abilities related to the First Amendment, but a radical difference in the government’s “arms” v. the citizenry guaranteed in the Second Amendment.  So why are we beating up the Second Amendment?

In the case of the First Amendment – amazing and radical changes in speech and communication have occurred since the 1700’s where men would stand on soap boxes on street corners to make their point. Newspapers were the way people communicated most prolifically then, at least to the literate elite portion of the population.

Other than the great example of not allowing one to yell “fire” in a crowded theatre, there are very few regulations on speech in this country where crucifixes are doused in urine, flags are burned. Political speech, ironically, is perhaps the greatest regulated speech in the land of the free, given all the disclosure required to pay for it.

Today, between Facebook, Twitter and internet in general, a revolution of speech has been afforded to every citizen on the planet to speak his or her mind. Never could our Founders have foreseen these amazing technologies available to both the government and the people. Nobody is suggesting that they should be solely the domain of the government.

The left has no issue fighting for the rights of the people to freely communicate without government tracking or interference – and the left is correct in doing so.  It is sad liberals are so selective and hypocritical in their embrace of the Constitution to only what they like and favor.