Not a fan of the 'natural rights' rubbish, no such thing, and as far as the Constitution goes, states' rights reflect original intent, and the individual states could and did pass laws restricting ownership of firearms, just as they did laws giving preferences and taxing powers to specific religious denominations. I'm not now or ever was personally a fan of the 'states' rights' legal status, but that was the way it was set up, and some consistency is needed in legal precedents, otherwise one ends up with what we have now, rule by judicial whim and fiat, i.e. a lot of political hack appointees with mental illnesses, and assorted fetishists, and half-wits with high esteem making unilateral proclamations, not a functioning legal system.
There is no rule of law, even in lower courts, for most Americans now, so also no respect for government functions and no binding obligations or support for laws any more.
Congratulations on the Third World corruption levels and two Parties run by vile traitors who can't gets themselves enough of Red China and it's 'capitalist system'(snicker); you think Venezuela is bad, do you? ....
Are you saying you don't have a right to live?
Are you trying to be clever? If so, come up with better strawmen.
The 'natural rights' rubbish is an 'Enlightenment' era fiction dreamed up to avoid giving credit to the long march of pagan Greeks and their philosophies, through the Greek influence on Judaism, from there through the long rise of Christian influences on law, culture, traditions, and society. It's just that simple. No such thing as 'Natural Rights', it's just some rubbish sophistry invented by Catholic bashers, trying to peddle moral relativism and other stupid regressive concepts as 'valid'. All the silly fad of 'rationalism' has managed to produce is mass murderers like Hitler, Mao, and Stalin.
Not at all; rights evolve, just like laws, culture, and traditions do. If that bothers some people, that is their issue to deal with.
Most theist thinkers support the idea of natural or "god-given" rights because god made us in his own image, and therefore everyone deserves sovereignty over themselves. That's the argument anyway, although that hasn't and still hasn't stopped people who fear the almighty god from shitting all over other people, be it their differing faith, skin color or sexual orientation... all in the name of the almighty god.
Not interested in the deflections, just the premise there is some body of 'Rights' inherent in 'Nature' itself. I understand why anarchists and the proponents of mindless self-indulgence would want to promote such nonsense, I just don't have to parrot their propaganda, just because Locke and some other sophists don't want to credit Christian theology for being the primary sources for the idea of individual rights in modern law and society, that's all.
So if rights aren't natural, which is basically an atheist way of saying "god-given", then where do rights come from? Or are people just there to be crushed under the boot of someone else who manages to amass the most power?
lol what drama ... hate to break it to you but throughout most of human history, and around the world today, the latter is the way it is and has been. You live in a tiny historical bubble in a tiny bubble of a wealthy country, so you wouldn't have the first clue that your 'natural rights' are just social constructs derived from largely theological traditions and concepts.
You keep bringing up 'atheists' for some reason, don't know why; they could care less about 'natural rights', or any other morals based intellectual constructs, outside of a few intellectuals like Hayek and some others. They're mostly mindless, ignorant Dawkins' fans these days.
