Sotomayor's pending confirmation exposes how far we have fallen

By Gerard Valentino

Of all the issues brought up during the confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayer, one comment she made is most disturbing. It also has largely been ignored by the establishment media. During an exchange with Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla, Sotomayer stated there is no constitutional right to self-defense.

Her statement makes one thing painfully clear – the liberal intelligentsia see individual rights where they don't exist, and don't see fundamental rights clearly enumerated in the Constitution.

The thought that our Founding Fathers didn't believe people have a right to self-defense is simply a way for people of Sotomayer's backwards ideology to infringe on our right to bear arms. With a fundamental right to self-defense, the right to bear arms becomes even clearer. Someone with Sotomayer's ridiculous leftist belief system simply can't agree that owning a gun is a fundamental right all Americans enjoy. Therefore, to justify her illogical stance she needs to deny other rights to honest Americans.

She will not, despite claims to the contrary, ever vote to protect the right to bear arms as a Supreme Court Justice. It is just that simple, and her willingness to deny that people have a right to self-defense is a big piece of her argument against the right to bear arms.

Americans, of all political ideologies have a fundamental right to liberty that is clearly conveyed by our Constitution. All of the Bill of Rights furthers our liberty and as many intelligent people have pointed out, our rights are not given by government, but instead are given by the creator and the Constitution protects our rights from government.

Twisting the Constitution to further an unenlightened view of America isn't anything new to the left in our country.

They refuse to accept the individual right to bear arms that is affirmed in the Second Amendment. For most on the left, their view is based on a belief in the overriding power of the government and the ridiculous idea that it's the government's job to protect individual citizens.

The simple fact is that it's the Constitution's job to protect individual citizens, not the other way around. Our Founders understood that government power always leads to oppression and a withering of individual rights. So, they created a document designed specifically to protect liberty from the unyielding actions of government.

Now, we stand at the brink of confirming a U.S Supreme Court Justice who doesn't believe in an individual right to bear arms despite the fact that it's plainly spelled out in the Constitution.

How a judge can look at the Second Amendment and claim it is anything but an individual right is a serious question. Judges swear to uphold and defend the Constitution and then jurists of Sotomayer's backward ideology, go against it without concern.

That is a shame, and further proof that the left in America is willing to subvert the Constitution for their gain.

Gerard Valentino is the Buckeye Firearms Foundation Treasurer and writes for the ValentinoChronicle.com.