If you like your 1st Amendment rights you'd better keep the 2nd Amendment. We lose guns nothing will stop the loss of freedom of speech, religion, etc. I mean it's happening now, look at all the things that are banned, religious symbolism, no nativity scenes, can't say Merry Christmas, no Easter Bunny, No God in the Pledge of Alliegence, the list goes on and on - there's a thread in here about the word Master being shunned in relation to Master Bedrooms! This is censorship, this is the beginning of the loss of the 1st Amendment. And at the same time people are trying to take our guns. Let them and see the founding principles of the United States eradicated... then what are we? The 2nd Amendment exists to protect the 1st Amendment. And no a .22 6 shooter won't do...
Originally Posted by ackvt
I didn't say the 2nd had wording referring to the 1st. But the 1st is the foundation of our "free state" and if our government, or another government tries to remove our freedoms guaranteed under #1 if we don't have #2 there isn't anything we can do to preserve the "security of a (our) free state". The Amendments are not silos, randomly thrown together thoughts.
Originally Posted by ackvt
Certainly, the First Amendment is part of the foundation of our society, but the Second Amendment was created so people could maintain a militia and protect our country against foreign incursions, not against our own government as popular culture would like to believe. At that time, the United States did not have a powerful standing military, so it was important to have its citizens double as soldiers to protect the country against foreign invasion if necessary.
"Free" in this case, means free from foreign influence.
Second, even if you don't believe this - do you really believe that somehow your own personal stash of guns is going to overthrow the government if it puts any limits on the First Amendment?
When "God" was added to the Anthem isn't the point... the point is that someone's offended so now it has to go, now someone has to be censored. AND I agree that people have the right to do what they want on their own property, that's not the point. The point to not being censored is being able to freely express your belief's ANYWHERE you want. And how is allowing a nativity scene promoting one religion over another? Isn't forbidding it punishing those who follow that religion? I guess it depends on your perspective.
Originally Posted by ackvt
No, the point is that our society believes that there should be a separation between our government and religion and that our government shouldn't be pushing any one religion over the rest. A teacher in a public school should not be forcing their religious views upon their students. Putting a reference to the Judeo-Christian God in our national pledge of allegience is not about freedom of speech - it's about trying to say we like this religion (Christianity and its sects) over the rest.
Regarding allowing a nativity scene:
1) Are you talking about allowing this in schools or in over government buildings? If so, refer to my previous paragraph about the separation of church and state.
2) Do you honestly not understand how having a nativity scene pushes Judeo-Christian beliefs over others?
Not allowing someone to put up a nativity scene in a government building isn't punishing someone for following a religion. They can follow a religion all they want - they just can't bring it into a government space that should be treating all religions equally.