Gun Control & RKBA
Related: About this forumSo You Think You Know the Second Amendment?
Posted by Jeffrey Toobin
Does the Second Amendment prevent Congress from passing gun-control laws? The question, which is suddenly pressing, in light of the reaction to the school massacre in Newtown, is rooted in politics as much as law.
For more than a hundred years, the answer was clear, even if the words of the amendment itself were not. The text of the amendment is divided into two clauses and is, as a whole, ungrammatical: A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The courts had found that the first part, the militia clause, trumped the second part, the bear arms clause. In other words, according to the Supreme Court, and the lower courts as well, the amendment conferred on state militias a right to bear armsbut did not give individuals a right to own or carry a weapon.
Enter the modern National Rifle Association. Before the nineteen-seventies, the N.R.A. had been devoted mostly to non-political issues, like gun safety. But a coup détat at the groups annual convention in 1977 brought a group of committed political conservatives to poweras part of the leading edge of the new, more rightward-leaning Republican Party. (Jill Lepore recounted this history in a recent piece for The New Yorker.) The new group pushed for a novel interpretation of the Second Amendment, one that gave individuals, not just militias, the right to bear arms. It was an uphill struggle. At first, their views were widely scorned. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, who was no liberal, mocked the individual-rights theory of the amendment as a fraud.
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/12/jeffrey-toobin-second-amendment.html#ixzz2FTPxNw2w
discntnt_irny_srcsm
(18,479 posts)They just need to make those laws relevant to inter-state commerce.
gejohnston
(17,502 posts)"collective rights" as precedent? The only ones I can find are pre incorporation "states can refuse any right" decisions. Not even US v Miller doesn't.
Glaug-Eldare
(1,089 posts)where he listed the rights which the Constitution was only supposed to guarantee for whites:
tortoise1956
(671 posts)I'll post this link once again. It's a paper written by Sanford Levinson, discussing the true meaning of the second amendment. In it, he clearly delineates why it is an individual right.
http://constitution.org/mil/embar2nd.htm
Anything else?
tortoise1956
(671 posts)lastlib
(23,244 posts)A well regulated militia (comma) being necessary to the security of a free state (comma) the right of the people to keep and bear arms (comma) shall not be infringed.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html
Structurally analyzed, the "well-regulated militia" phrase is the superior clause of the sentence. THAT is what "shall not be infringed." The other two clauses are subordinate--modifying or explaining the superior clause. So, to interpret:
"A well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state."
"A well-regulated militia is the expression of the right of the people to keep and bear arms."
"The right of the states to have a well-regulated militia shall not be infringed."
So, by the pure logic of the language, it is NOT protecting an individual's right to keep/bear arms.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)I keep reading 2A and I can't find that phrase anywhere.
discntnt_irny_srcsm
(18,479 posts)...to Dictionary 2.1.
In my day we had the new math; today we have the new English.
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)discntnt_irny_srcsm
(18,479 posts)..."You guys think not getting caught in a lie is the same as telling the truth."
Today's English is all about "the expression of".
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)GreenStormCloud
(12,072 posts)fightthegoodfightnow
(7,042 posts)My FAVORITE text in the 2nd Amendment!
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)discntnt_irny_srcsm
(18,479 posts)I've been meaning to watch that again.
However... I do not mean to pry, but you don't by any chance happen to have six fingers on your right hand?