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To: Dog Gone
You probably have all kinds of LAWS against that, but the Bill of Rights only restricts the Federal government and the state governments to the extent that those rights have been extended to the various states

What about when the corporation *is* the government de facto? I'd be interested in your thoughts here.

If the gov't owned the corporation 100%, could they then have license to infringe upon all individual Rights?

What if the percentage is only 50%? Or 1%?

Or what if they don't own it, but pass laws making it impossible for anyone else to compete with the company?

If I'm your employer, I can restrict the heck out of your right to free speech or to carry a weapon, or whatever.

Can a man consensually surrender his Right to self-defense or Right to free speech? I think not. Consider what Sam Adams had to say:

"If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of Almighty God, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.”"

Certainly no third party can deprive a man of his Rights, if even he himself cannot surrender them.

Keep in mind, we're not talking about employees who want to open a shooting range on company property, or clean their guns while they should be working.

We are talking about the Rights of individuals to bear arms for defense of themselves, their property, and their nation. No power on earth has the moral authority to deprive them of that Right and duty.

119 posted on 07/23/2004 8:50:28 PM PDT by Mulder (All might be free if they valued freedom, and defended it as they should.-- Samuel Adams)
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To: Mulder
You absolutely can consent to waiving your constitutional rights, even to the government. It happens every day.

You do raise an interesting hypothetical. If the government owned 1% of AOL, could it then impose a firearm ban on company property?

I'd argue that it couldn't, although I suspect the judiciary would try to determine whether the government ownership was actually responsible for the ban. Excellent question.

But in regards to your hypothetical where one company (or even more than one) had a monopoly in the country that prohibited gun possession, I think that is constitutionally permissible. As long as it's private property, the property owner gets to make the rules for admission.

127 posted on 07/23/2004 8:58:53 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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