In America, especially, people are quick to talk about their rights, but seldom are they so quick to talk about their corresponding duties to those rights. Perhaps this is the case, because the first Ten Amendments to our Constitution are collectively known as the Bill of Rights, and of which there isn’t thereafter subsequent Amendments known thereby as our Bill of Duties. Yet, clearly the rights that we have as given by our Constitution, or through our Creator, have implicit within those rights, a responsibility and therefore a duty for those that wish to faithfully exercise those rights.
The fact that there is a significant swath of the population that either are unawares, or act unaware, that they ever have a responsibility to their governance, in regards to their rights, is the primary reason, why there is so much selfishness and confusion in society, today. For instance, the right to our freedom of speech, has a corresponding duty that such speech cannot, for example, be utilized to incite imminent lawless action or of fraud, for without such limits being imposed upon that freedom of speech, then civil societies could easily be torn asunder.
So then, every single right, comes with a corresponding duty, and further to the point, every right, necessitates responsibility to that right. That is to say, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, has quite obviously a corresponding duty that such arms so kept and subsequently utilized, must be done in a responsible manner that does not infringe upon the people’s liberty to be about their business as well as also precluding lawless, illegal and threatening actions by those with those arms; in addition to the salient fact, that such arms are not to be used as part of a rebellion to that government of, for, and by the people, but instead must be utilized in the defense of that liberty.
As it has been said, freedom is not free, but rather necessitates eternal vigilance, of which that vigilance is part and parcel of the duty and thereby the responsibility that each citizen is obligated to perform on behalf of their government, in order to do their fair part in maintaining and enhancing that freedom. A country in which the people are constantly pestering their government, or one another, about this right or that right which has been compromised or trammeled upon, must realize that it is only when those that have those rights, have taken upon themselves their duty to those rights, that we are best able to maintain that which is a right, which is why each right so granted, needs to be successfully championed by the people and its representatives, or we may just find such, as if it never was.
Those that understand the importance of rights, must do their loyal part, to maintain those rights, for far too often that which we take for granted, such as our unalienable rights, will be sundered from our very hands, by powerful forces which do not care for the people to have all those rights; but rather would prefer that the population be frightened into forsaking certain rights, and hence their duties and responsibilities to those rights, in abject obedience to that which has no legitimate right to such.