I saw the below quote by Rep. Louise Slaughter on social media recently, and I was struck by how wrong (in my opinion) her understanding of rights is.
(H/T Firearms Policy Coalition)
To put it simply, the Second Amendment does not only protect people who “want all the guns they can have.” It protects everyone.
The Second Amendment guarantees everyone the right to bear arms. People who have no interest in guns or weapons – a group that clearly includes Rep. Slaughter – are protected by the Second Amendment just as much as those who love guns and weapons. And this logic applies to all rights: the fact that a person has no desire to exercise a particular right does not mean that the person does not have that right.
Contrary to what Rep. Slaughter claims, everyone has a Second Amendment. Slaughter clearly does not value the rights that the Second Amendment guarantees, and would not mind losing them. But that does not make it okay for her to take them away from everyone else.