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The week's question
In December 2024, in the thread "Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?", BreckHutHigh asked the members: "What about the long road trips with kids?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
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Author: albaby1 SILVER
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Number: of 84359 
Subject: Re: Here's one for the ATHEIST board
Date: 05/31/23 4:58 PM
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Morality and rights are -in a democracy- a consensus of opinion, and what is written in the law (including the Constitution). All of which is subject to change/revision through whatever processes are described in the laws.

I would disagree. I think you're conflating concepts - morality, opinion, rights, and laws - that are subtly and importantly different from each other. Something can be legal but immoral; a society can have a legal requirement that deprives people of fundamental human rights; people can form a consensus of opinion on what they believe is moral and can still be wrong. One need not posit a creator in order to identify universal human rights that it is wrong for any society to violate. A country that commits genocide against a religious or ethnic minority isn't acting morally or consistent with that minority's rights just because the genocide is sanctioned by duly-adopted law.

To try to keep nominally on the point I was trying to make, though, it's pretty clear that the "right" to gun ownership is not a fundamental or natural or universal human right. Some rights are simply decisions made by one society to resolve a particular issue in one way or another - such as our right to be free from quartered troops. At most (and it is disputed) we have chosen to adopt for ourselves a guarantee of the ability to own firearms. But contrary to Dope1's assertion, that is neither a fundamental or natural right.
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This community has written 84,309 posts about US Policy. The article-length ones it recommended most:
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