I keep hearing mention of the notion that one is likely to "lose his RTKABA if he does this or that." One cannot lose that right. Who would take it away? The Government? Impossible, as the government was not the source of this right to start with. The only thing government can do is to stop recognizing a man's RTKABA, in essence declare war on his personal liberties, making him a second class citizen (a sort of serf-status or slave, really) in the Republic. His rights, however, remain exactly as they were when he first acquired adult status.
We are endowed by our Creator (NOT GOVERNMENT) with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Now, having a right to something, means that one may rightly defend that thing. Having a right to life, for instance, mean that we have the right to defend our life, and to the effective means thereto, i.e., the latest in personal arms, otherwise we cannot truly say that we have a right to life. It is precisely to secure this right to personal arms (among other rights) that legitimate governments are instituted among men to start with. That's legitimate government's only real function. If it fails in that function, it has become destructive to its own ends, and the word for that is tyranny. In which case it becomes the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government. So, when government seeks to deny a human being at liberty an inalienable right (i.e., a right permanently attached to his being a human being at liberty), it actually loses its own legitimacy as a government.
