New bill could force states to allow visiting gun owners to pack heat without a permit

[X_Digger]

54. You seem to think that the constitution and/or BoR grants rights, or sets the limits.

Here, let me help disabuse you of that silly notion. Read the preamble to the BoR:

[div class='excerpt']The Conventions of a number of the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution.

The Bill of Rights was intended as a 'the government shall not' document- "to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers"- not a 'the people can' document. Abuse of whose powers? The government. Rights aren't limited by the bill of rights; rather the scope of protections of certain rights are set. If the Bill of Rights were a listing of all a person's rights, there would be no need for the ninth and tenth amendments ("The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." and "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." respectively.)

If the Bill of Rights encompassed all rights, and only to some proscribed purpose, then there would be no right of travel-- a right firmly established, but absent in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.