Today's Constitutional Amendment of the Day is Amendment IX. "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

Since I have been taking some expected abuse over at the Command Post for my criticism of the Allied gun grab in Iraq, I'm reviving this category, to pay homage to this often overlooked member of our Bill of Rights. I am not surprised that pundits have resorted to name calling and abuse, calling my views "extremist", and suggesting I have a "militia" like attitude. I can only assume that this is just short of playing the "race card", and likening me to the "Militias" formed by 1980s white supremacists. Still, I shrug all that off.

Most notable though, is the common feeling that Iraqis are living in a war zone, and thus have no right to bear arms. The feeling is that the safety of our troops is paramount, and that taking guns away from Iraqi citizens is just good "common sense." I've also been criticized for holding the belief that all humans, not just Americans, have a right to defend themselves. The feeling is that Americans have the right to liberty and self-defense, because our Constitution gives us that right. Since Iraqis are not bound, nor protected, by the U.S. Constitution, they have no such rights.

While I have the utmost concern for our men and women in harms way, it is still my firm belief, that the right to defend yourself is not something that is granted, or written down. It is inherent and absolute. A law of nature, or if you will, a right granted by God.

If you look at nature, creatures all over the planet exercise their defensive instinct. If you go to pick up a snake or a rat or anything else, and it bites you, do you blame the thing for biting you? Do you say that it had no right to defend itself? Do you ask what government or societal entity granted that creature the right to defend itself? Why should humans be any different?

A person has a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. While that may be a right that we "protect" here in the United States, it is NOT a right granted by government. The founders of this nation recognized that those rights were inherent to all men. So much so, that the Amendment IX was included in the Bill of Rights to say that the "enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

Samuel Adams noted that:

Among the Natural Rights of the Colonists are these First. a Right to Life; Secondly to Liberty; thirdly to Property; together with the Right to support and defend them in the best manner they can--Those are evident Branches of, rather than deductions from the Duty of Self Preservation, commonly called the first Law of Nature--

The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man; but only to have the law of nature for his rule.--

And that, my friends, is why I contend that every being has a natural right to self defense and liberty. They have and should defend those rights the best way that they can. That is also why I feel that no governmental body can take away those rights, nor should they try.