The Constitution is a living document

Lee Bernstein, Las Vegas

Tuesday, May 13, 2014 | 2:01 a.m.

We should never have any doubt about the absolute brilliance of our Founding Fathers, the drafters of our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Their foresight was truly almost unbelievable.

I state this with reference to the recent “showdown” between Cliven Bundy and the government. The Second Amendment to our Bill of Rights states. “A well regulated militia being necessary for the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

The intent of the entire Bill of Rights was to protect us from “big government,” from illegal search and seizure, from being forced to quarter soldiers, and yes, ensure our right to bear arms. The Founding Fathers foresaw that there might, just might, be a situation wherein we, the people, might have to stand up for our rights, whether by a sit-in, a protest march, or even forming a line between “them” and “us.”

In this Bundy vs. the Brown Shirts, without even discussing the right or wrong of either, Bundy would have been squashed like a bug if the “militia,” American citizens, had not come to support him. Call it militia, call it just people standing up for what people believe is right, we saw our Bill of Rights not as some 230-year-old relic, but rather as a living active document.