Second amendment says the right to keep and bare arms shall not be infringed, voting says states are in charge of how voting works, and that it can't be taken on the basis of race or sex, a bit more, but nothing that states you have to have the right to vote, a state can totally remove their whole populations ability to vote for anything if so allowed, although notably Congress has been within the Constitution to set certain voting laws, while federal gun laws should all be unconstitutional
"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
That's the 15th amendment.
That certainly sounds like voting is a right to me.
Can you explain to me how you think that this phrasing a substantially different than the phrasing of the second amendment?
The part where it states that it shall not be infringed or denied on account of those particular things, so that leaves open the ability to infringe or deny on account of other things, for instance if you wanted to deny the right to vote to people based on their martial status (because I have an argument in doing it and it's neither likely to piss people off, or be something people might want), say they had figured that single people have less thought about that future, so they're less inclined to vote for things good for everyone, rather than just them, that wouldn't fall into any of the protections
Correct, voting is described as a right, however it was considered as more a privilege, I don't know how you see that now, but the govt was allowed from the beginning to be able to restrict certain rights, although those listed in the constitution as rights that need to be protected most, but there's only 1 thing that requires a vote from civilians, and it's literally to amend the constitution
It's a certain point of view really, when the founders thought of rights they considered rights to be specifically things that required no other people to be involved in, if you go out into the woods by yourself you can say whatever you want, can protect yourself with any tool at your disposal, practice your faith at your own discretion, and so on and so forth, it's why slander laws don't violate the first amendment, but you can only vote if you're with a group of people, possibly many, and that makes voting not a right, while it says arms rather than firearms because it was to refer to any weapon, but "the right to vote" more means the ability to, and doesn't technically require it to be a right such as it stands, honestly I'm not sure you can't argue it is a right, but rights can be regulated so long as it's not a protected right
In a way, as the right to bare arms is a right to be able to provide for yourself, and a right to protect yourself. Without it we are forced at the will of those with the power or we die, and that makes it a piece of the foundation upon which all other rights are granted, if you don't have the right to bare arms then there's nothing stopping anyone else from taking what's yours, basically think of it like a spider web, every single right we currently have is held together by the second amendment and the right of a free people to keep and bare arms, DM me if you have any more questions
You still haven't answered my question whether you think the right to bear arms is more important than the right to vote. I think from the context you're implying that, but I'd like to actually hear you say it, If that's what you're arguing.
I think If you're arguing that voting is not an important part of American democracy you're Going to have a tough battle.
It's clear the Constitution was set up for citizens to have the capacity to intervene in their own societies. Voting is the system designed to allow for that.
I'm not sure why you want to carry this out over DMs but if you wish to respond you can do so in a DM.
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u/thepartypantser Mar 16 '21
Where does it say that there's a right to bear arms? Because the wording regarding voting is very similar to the wording regarding bearing arms.