"Congress shall make no law..."

[Fast_Eddie]

Those are powerful words. Sounds to me like the Founding Fathers when writing the first amendment were making every effort to say "you don't mess with this one." Serious stuff indeed.

And over the years the first amendment has indeed been treated as serious stuff. "Congress shall make now law" has been tested many times. And yet, there are exceptions. I guess it's a bit of a cliché at this point to bring it up, but people have made the case that child pornography is protected by the first amendment of the Constitution. As a mental exercise, I guess I can mull that over and see both sides. But as a practical consideration it doesn't take long for the vast majority of Americans to agree to some limits on our first amendment rights. So the law prohibits my freedom of speech in that case. And I'm good with that. But make no mistake- my rights have been limited. And "Congress shall make no law" is still in there.

Okay, I'm going somewhere with this. At this point I'll ask you to pick a side. Do you agree that child pornography should indeed be illegal? If so, you're in the majority. Like most Americans, you're willing to give up that right because the exploitation of Children shouldn't be protected by our laws. If you do not agree, you're in a smaller group that would contend that sometimes bad things happen, but we have to be absolute in our protection of our rights. On an ideological level, a lot of us can see where those people are coming from, but disagree with them.

So, you're in the big group, or the little group. Make the call now. There's a quiz. And here it comes.

"...the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." The second amendment. Ahh. Here's the quiz. Were you in the big group in the exercise above? Did you decide that it's okay for out laws to limit your rights to protect children?

It's just food for thought. It's like asking the capital punishment gang how they feel about abortion. But I think it's worth while to think about these things. How do you really feel about the issue? Are you thinking for yourself or listening to someone else’s ideas and adopting them as your own?

Is it possible- just possible- that the NRA is working for the gun makers and importers more than they're working for the sportsman? I'm not saying they are. Just asking if it's possible. And is it possible that a law could be passed that would limit the rights under the Second Amendment that wouldn't lead to the banning of all weapons? Can you logically oppose any infringement of gun ownership rights without also opposing limits on child pornography?