--- In [email protected], "Marek Reavis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Ruth, excellent response and post. I disagree only with your 2d > Amend. analysis. Gun ownership by the individual is fundamental to > this country; in the last few years many constitutional experts have > examined the 2d Amend. and construed it to guarantee rights to the > individual, rather than the government militia. In my read that's > exactly what it states. > > "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." > > 'Government' in the Constitution (and particularly in the > Declaration of Independence) is to be feared for its inevitable > inclination to Tyranny, and necessarily then, harnessed and fettered > by the laws of the new republic. It was assumed that eventually any > government will go bad and the ability to resist your own government > (gone bad) by force of arms was understood to be one of the last > resorts to Tyranny. > > The fact that it sits uneasily with many modern sensibilities > doesn't mean it doesn't say what it says. Though that's just the > way I see, and there is a lot of disagreement continuing. I think > the Supremes have a 2d Amend. case in this term; I haven't been > following it. > > Marek >
Well, I didn't really give a second amendment analysis. I said it was awkwardly worded which has led to dispute. Yes, it says what it says, but what the heck is all that militia stuff about? (rhetorical question, you need not answer). And even if the right is an individual right, to what extent can government regulate that right? Various restrictions on gun ownership have been upheld by lower courts and most everyone agrees that some restrictions are going to be fine, even if the second amendment is an individual right. (Otherwise, people could go around carrying machine guns and hand grenades.) The case you likely are refering to is the Heller case, discussed in wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_v._Heller This case involved an absolute ban on handguns. Given the current make up of the court, it wouldn't surprise me if the case was upheld. But then we will have flurry of cases trying to find the boundaries of regulation. Not really my issue either, and I have not followed the cases.
