In regards to Mickey Belding’s article, “Second Amendment not a license for individual use of force” and the controversy that it has created, there seems to be great misunderstanding on the purpose and construction and government. The founding fathers wrote the Constitution in order to construct a political space in which the members of the state were free to act. In this regard a constitution is inherently public by definition.

After reviewing the definition of a constitution, it is properly understood as a composition or makeup of composed parts, each part being a constituent. As a constituent to the government you inherently have the power to frame and alter the overarching political constitution. The mentality of this ideology is analogous with any object of composed parts.

For example, if you remove any one component from a motor, it may still run; but it has been fundamentally damaged in its ability to do so.

Similarly, the individual is also critically damaged when being removed from the constitution, for although each component can be studied in seclusion to the whole, a true understanding of its purpose relies upon its function it has in relation to the other components.

In other words, we the people are the government and each constituent has valuable contributions they can make to the collective. Although each individual is vested with private rights the total constitution of the public as well as the private individual are damaged by their disengagement from the public sphere.

Understanding this, the founding fathers gave us political rights to help secure and define our role in the public realm.

For example, the First Amendment was established to allow individuals the guaranteed right to participate in discussions, debates and assemblies, together as a public. This helps the individual define themselves as they confront controversial ideas and declare their own thoughts into a listening audience.

The public gains the benefit of flexibility and constructive criticism over its policies and performances, and over time as the individuals debate they come to alter their government accordingly. As constituents we have the ability to choose the issues and the appropriate reactions, but it is only be engaging in the public realm that the individual can bring these issues to the table and establish legislation or lack thereof.

Other rights, such as the Second Amendment, grant individuals the right to bear arms for the security of the public. As individual constituents we have a vested interest in the security and continuity of our institutions. We are a part of the American institution, and most all Americans will identify themselves as such, regardless of political orientation. To the extent that we are the ones who shape and develop the government, we have been vested with the duty as well as the right to protection the public sphere.

Contrary to popular belief, the Second Amendment was not written for protection from the government, for as the Constitution is constructed we are the government. Other private rights for private purpose exist, such as self-defense, but only as means to protect your foundations of life, which do not necessarily include the use of arms as a proper defense.

The government is a construction of individual constituents and our private rights exist to support our participation in the public realm.

Individual citizens are provided the ability within the Constitution to define who they are among a population of other engaged individuals. The meaning of The Bill of Rights is to protect this ability.