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Excellent article in the Dallas Morning News.
Bold added by me
We can stop mass shootings without restricting Second Amendment liberties
It is often said by people of all political persuasions, and certainly by my fellow conservatives, that the primary duty of the federal government...
www.dallasnews.com
Bold added by me
It is often said by people of all political persuasions, and certainly by my fellow conservatives, that the primary duty of the federal government is to keep us safe.
The problem is, that's not true. The founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and especially the Federalist Papers, make it clear that the primary duty of the federal government is the preservation of liberty, not safety. The Founders had very clear ideas about the trade-offs between safety and liberty, and they willingly gave up their own security in order to take a desperate shot at more political liberty.
The Founders were primarily concerned about preventing tyranny, and they correctly understood that a free people could keep themselves safe, but a safe people might not be able to keep themselves free. You could live safely in a police state or a military dictatorship, or remain subjects of King George, but you wouldn't be free.