Posted by: M
Comment: #1
Mon Jul 7, 2008 2:34 PM
The rest of the Bill of Rights enshrines rights universally recognized as those of "the people", presumably "people" is applicable in its plain sense: both in the aggregate and indidivually. This is to say that each of these Rights is a legal limitation upon the power of government, nothing less. It always seemed foolish and inconsistent to me to try to parse out the Second Amendment from the rest, based on an uncertain reading of its preamble, as NOT conferring an individual right, despite its plain language that "...the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed".
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Posted by: davd w pennington
Comment: #2
Sun Jun 29, 2008 4:33 AM
Well done, Mr. Chapman.
For years we have been subjected to the constant droning of those who want to eliminate guns--from mayors to senators to anti-gun organizations. The whole business has looked a lot like a combination of Lenin's dictum regarding truth, and a plot combining "Animal Farm" and "1984": we can make the truth what we want it to be, if we repeat the same lies long enough, and we can revise the meaning of a document, if we do it a little at a time.
I began my own research into the legal history of the 2nd Amendment a little over 10 years ago. I found to my pleasant surprise--and disgust--that the Supreme Court rulings cited as having interpreted the Right as a "collective right", or as a right of the states, actually did nothing of the kind.
The 1st Amendment has been given the same treatment, as I'm sure you know. I mention it here, because the same thing has been attempted with both of them: to reverse the original meaning. The 1st Amendment was intended to protect speech of a political nature, particularly criticisms of the government or of candidates for office. The 2nd was intended to keep the hands of the government out of private gun lockers. The 1st Amendment suffered a direct hit at the hands of the Supreme Court, when part of the Campaign Finance Reform Act was upheld. When I saw that, I feared for the fate of the 2nd.
Well, in a democratic republic it is never 'over', but at least the People won this round, as Justice was served.
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