This post is about RKBA versus right to health care so I’ll post it in DU’s Guns Fortress.

[jody]

GD has several threads with numerous assertions that “health care” is a right and some stress it is not a privilege.

I use “right” above to mean “natural right” as opposed to “privilege” that is often referred to as a “legal right”.

Our Bill of Rights enumerated rights in eight amendments and recognized unenumerated rights in the Ninth Amendment.

IMO our Constitution does not recognize health care as a “right” meaning government is not required to provide health care as I discuss below.

Our nation has $10+ trillion in debt and we have limited funds for any version of so-called universal health care. Society must then make decisions on which patients will receive medical care and who will not. That could be interpreted as establishing a minimum level of health care to which each citizen is entitled as a privilege.

Universal health care laws will require funds and IMO the question of whether health care is a right or privilege; i.e. using PA and VT words natural, inherent, inalienable/unalienable right; that government must fund will require SCOTUS approval.

SCOTUS has said repeatedly that government is not obligated to protect an individual unless she/he is in custody, most recently in Castle Rock v. Gonzales. i.e. self-defense is a personal responsibility.

Since self-defense is a personal responsibility, the right to keep and bear arms for defense against crime is important and protected by the Second Amendment as SCOTUS said in D.C. v. Heller.

More specifically by example, government is not obligated to protect an individual against the threat of death by a criminal and it seems to follow that government is not obligated to protect that same individual against the threat of death by a disease.

Given the battle we pro-RKBA Dems, et al won with D.C. v. Heller, it’s timely to remember that our victory confirms what we have been saying, that each law-abiding citizen has the right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. The decision did not say government is obligated to protect each individual against criminals.

Thoughtful comments on the topic will be appreciated.