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Afraid to Practice Your Rights...

1K views 5 replies 6 participants last post by  althor 
#1 ·
This might be a "duh question" but I want to know some peoples thoughts on it. Should you ever, ever, ever be afraid to exercise your rights granted to you from God, the United States and Utah State Constitutions?
 
#3 ·
You probably should feel an obligation to protect those rights at all times. Exercising those rights is somewhat more of a personal matter. People should follow their conscience in deciding what rights they decide to exercise. For instance, I don't really exercise my right to free speech (aside from on this forum and inside my home). You probably won't see me out on the street with a sign and political/anti-political slogan. However, I do openly carry a firearm, so there are some things that I want to exercise and others I choose not to. Being given the right to choose for oneself (freedom) is central to God's plan and the basic beliefs our government was founded on. No one should ever feel obligated or restrained when it comes to exercising rights. They are personal and God granted, they belong to you and no one can take them away. They can take your life, "but they can never take your freedom".
 
#4 ·
Hmmm....

The twenty-first amendment repealed the eighteenth amendment, therefore I have a right to drink intoxicating liquors. That's one I don't do.
 
#5 ·
Should you? Well, in an ideal world, of course not. You should exercise whatever freedoms you want to, without fear.

In practice... I sometimes do fear to exercise my rights, and I sometimes even choose not to exercise them, out of fear.

For example, I researched the CA law pretty thoroughly a couple months ago when I was going to San Francisco, and I determined that it is perfectly legal to OC (completely unloaded) in SF. However, after talking to people who live there I decided that to do it would almost guarantee that I would be arrested and charged with anything and everything they could find or invent. Out of fear that an arrest would (a) interfere with my business trip and (b) cost me a lot of time and money, I decided not to do it.

Taking the example a little further, I firmly believe that I have a God-given, constitutionally-guaranteed RIGHT to be fully armed in San Francisco, meaning loaded carry, in spite of the fact that CA law says I can't. I know openly exercising that right would get me convicted of a felony and that conviction would be upheld by the relevant court of appeals. It might, possibly, be overturned on appeal to the US Supreme Court, but even if it did I'd lose my freedom for a significant period of time and spend a lot of money on the court battles. My fear of that outcome is so strong that I wouldn't dream of exercising my right.

To some degree this fear is a failing on my part. I justify it on the grounds that I have responsibilities that I could not fulfill if I were in jail and spending all of my money on legal fees. I applaud those who do make these sorts of sacrifices, but I, personally, won't.
 
#6 ·
Outsider said:
This might be a "duh question" but I want to know some peoples thoughts on it. Should you ever, ever, ever be afraid to exercise your rights granted to you from God, the United States and Utah State Constitutions?
Well... the United States and the Utah State Constitution are not granting you anything here, except maybe the warm fuzzy feeling that they will not come and take away that which you already have... maybe.
 
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