Disclaimer for non Americans This is an extension of a debate I'd had with some coworkers... This is not a debate on the constitution itself, but rather its purpose, if you want to get on here and tell me we need to Amend the Bill of Rights I'm unlikely to dignify that with a response, and I'll probably simply block your comment. I'm not open to debate about the validity of the US Constitution, that's how we did things here, its how we're going to do them, if you think you can do things better, than some day maybe you'll rule the world. I don't care.


The entire point of the Bill of Rights was that it became apparently shortly after the Revolutionary war, that confederacies don't work so well, and a strong central government was required. The problem was that America was founded by a group of militant revolutionaries who'd just overthrown their original government over a tax dispute, and believed firmly in their autonomy. Therefor they wrote up a list of things to make sure that the new government would never be able to 'oppress them' as they felt their old government had.

When taken separately these rights may seem to lack sense, or be random, or perhaps not relate to each other, making it entirely to easy to say "Well, perhaps we need limits on the first for hate speech" or "The 2nd Amendment was never about people being armed as well as the government" "Maybe we need to limit the scope of the 5th, or the 4th Amendments as they provide too much protection to criminals...." etc etc, whatever the Constitutional argument du-jour is. All amendments are equally important, except maybe the quartering one, keep in mind the British used to actually do that back then, as did a lot of other major governments.

Let me translate the Bill of rights into modern english, as best I understand it, because I think we get hung up by the fact that people talked differently 230 years ago and certain things were simply understood, especially as there were approximately 4 crimes a person could commit back then and everyone believe there was a god.


NOTE: BOLD indicates rights for the people against the government, or negative rights of government, ITALIC UNDERLINED is the portion really written more as an explanation for the people, of what government CAN do, not specifically prohibited here.


Amendment 1: We have the right to say what needs to be said about you, to demand answers about your actions, to get together and discuss them, to circulate information about you (so long as its true) and to worship whatever particular god we wish.

Amendment 2: Any attempt to hinder the previous or following rights will be met with force equal to(at the time of the founding, greater than), the force possessed by you.

Amendment 3: My home is my castle, your troops need a home, build a barracks (this one is weird, but it made sense then)

Amendment 4: My home is STILL my castle, stay out of it and my life unless I give you cause to accuse me of a crime, you can't just accuse me of things, it needs to be founded in the opinion of others, I am a free man unless I give a group of my peers (or a judge, or both) just cause to believe i should not, and that cause must be backed up by real evidence.

Amendment 5: the merits of any accusation against me will go before a grand jury of my peers, to weigh the evidence from amendment above, you cannot force a confession out of me, you can only try me once for one crime and you cannot take my property or my life without respect to the above or compensation as is deemed fair.

Amendment 6: I have the right to a trial by a jury of my peers, if they find me innocent then I am, even if I am OJ Simpson, if you accuse me of a crime you better do it to my face, and I can STILL bring in people to say you're lying. I have a right to a lawyer to help me with this and the above amendment, and probably all the others too!

Amendment 7: If you sue me for a lot of money, that's tried by a jury too, and you still only get one chance, except where its held that you should be able to try again!

Amendment 8: You can't set a million dollar bail for a parking ticket, and you can't make me walk naked on hot coals or run the gauntlet or be hung my the fingernails until dead. Send me to jail or hang me.

Amendment 9: Just because we listed some rights doesn't mean you don't have any other rights.

Amendment 10: Anything we didn't say we can do here, and stuff we said we can't, is up to the states, or the people, as is applicable.

~Manufacturers coupon, not subject to doubling, good only in the United States of America, No expiration~

That's almost certainly how our founding fathers, and the "rebel scum' of the 'colonies' they represented saw the bill of rights, it was all things that they had in perpetuity to make sure that they would be free, forever.

More things were added later, but the original Ten to me are sacred, they should be left alone, and interpreted to be as generous TO THE PEOPLE as is possible.

I find it really funny that people who want to stretch the 4th Amendment like it was a sheet of rubber treat the 2nd and parts of the 5th like they were postage stamps, and that people desperate to protect the Second Amendment will freely attack the 4th and the 1st to defend it. Its a giant mess. Its all desperately important, every bit of that is needed. You cannot build a house without a foundation, you will need panes and glass for the windows, locks for the doors, a roof... take away any part and you will be very miserable indeed!


For what its worth, my 2 cents on the current Second Amendment debate... at the time of the Bill of Rights, 1791, the average American was better armed than the "military" as there was no standing military, and the arms the government possessed to provide one when it was needed and called upon, were inferior smoothbore muskets compared with the long rifles most Americans owned privately, inferior in both range and accuracy, and in some cases also rate of fire as many citizens privately owned double barreled rifles, or carried a long and short rifle, or a rifle and several pistols, etc, etc.