eye95
Well-known member
French security forces have a “right” to use rubber ball launchers at protesters?!?
Governments, their agencies, and their agents, don’t have Rights. They have authorities, actions that they are allowed under the law. Persons exist apart from the law, and have Rights. Governments only exist under the law, which grants them authorities.
This fundamental misunderstanding of Rights and the misuse of the word are why folks wrongly think that government defines, grants, and can morally limit Rights. When we allow government to make these decisions, the idea of “reasonable restrictions on Rights” (such as “reasonable gun control”) becomes possible.
[Note: I am not passing judgment on the appropriateness of the the use of these particular weapons in these particular circumstances, just on the misuse of the word in the headline. I don’t even know who misused the word first: the council itself or the press.]