I am in her “Profession” and I am not aware of a Federal CONSTITUTIONAL right of self defense. It’s a common law doctrine, codified in most, if not all, states. It’s also probably codified in Federal statutes. Am I wrong? The right is statutory, not constitutional. So, she might be right.
I don’t think that was the question.
Ah, so you have the right to keep & bear tools of self-defense as a fundamental pre-existing inalienable right, but actually using them for self-defense is a matter of codification by the whim of elected officials? Riiiiiight.
Well, actually, yes - you’re wrong.
To elaborate, the 2nd Amendment states RKBA in conjunction with defense of the state by members of the citizenry reasonably expected to do so when circumstances require it. The “state” being a collection of individual citizens, every one of us constitutes 1/300,000,000th of this nation - that fraction of which we are reasonably expected to defend as circumstances require by use of the explicitly enumerated RKBA.
The common law is applicable unless the legislative branch enacts a law that abrogates the common law.
It is a Natural Right. From William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England,
"Those rights then which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as are life and liberty, need not the air of human law to be more effectually invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no human legislature has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner shall himself commit some act that amounts to a forfeiture."
The Natural Law philosophy of our Founders was expressed in our Declaration and put into practice in our Constitution.
We do not need positive law from government to justify the exercise of our Natural Rights. One of those rights is self defense.
What does the 2nd Amendment mean to you? Just to own guns but not use them? It implies and gives consent to citizens to bear and use arms in their self defense.