Preaching to the Choir

[stanc]

The founding documents are insurance against the exact situation you explain, where rights are determined by force. without inalienable rights, without equalizers, we will always default to "Might makes Right", Bully rules.

Uh huh. My position is that, whether we have such "insurance" or not, power is what really counts.

For instance, if we have an "inalienable right" to keep and bear arms -- a right that "shall not be infringed" -- how come there are so many laws which restrict or prohibit the exercise of that right?

It's clear to me (even if not to others here) that the answer is: Because some people had sufficient power to get those laws enacted, the police use their power to enforce those laws, and the courts exert their power to uphold those laws. Might makes right.

The Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights and Amendments stand as our voice as one people, Declaring our rights,

Oh, please. There is no "our voice as one people" because there is no agreement as to the meaning and intent of the 2nd Amendment. The people are obviously divided on this issue, as on many others.

The documents themselves, the Ideals of Freedom, the foundation on which America stands, that IS the Might of the people - and we must always remember how to enact and draw upon that Might, for we will be challenged.

<sigh> The documents are words on paper. They have no power, no ability to prevent the implementation of laws contrary to those ideals.

The 2nd Amendment is paramount to the other inalienable rights established by the founding documents, and indeed, serves as both a lynch pin holding it all together, and as a last physical resort, when those with all the Might come knocking. Government eroding our rights as they have for the last century, is nothing but a bully slowly dismantling the wall around your home, pretty soon, that bully has a clear line of sight, and plenty of stones to throw.

Seems to be a rather weak linchpin. I mean, it hasn't prevented that wall from being continually dismantled, has it? If arms are not used, having them can not, and will not, deter that dismantling.