Joe writes: an individual's right to tote a gun > ... > The first version of the Statutes at Large, generally the "bible" on > proper early statutory language, uses one comma. It has done so since > about 1857 (long before the current controversy developed).
Hmm - back in the early 90's I got curious about this - and wrote a summary of my intestigations - put at the end of the letter. I'll certainly read the material that Joe cites, and see if this changes my mind. However, I'll take this opportunity to remark on a style of wording. The Baron article says, "an individual's right to tote a gun". I also find articles that use phrases such as "pack heat" When I find this type of informal phrase in an allegedly serious analysis it usually indicates a major disagreement with the individual rights interpretation, and an appeal to emotion. -- --henry schaffer What is the exact spelling and punctuation of the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States? Inquiring minds want to know. We have two main contending versions, plus some minor players. The best supported version is: 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. Note the three commas and three capital letters (other than the initial A.) This can be represented as (M,S,A,). One source of this version is a document provided by the Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution, Warren E. Burger, Chairman. Another common version is: 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. This version with one comma can be represented (mS,a). Supporting one comma is a seal printed by the NRA which has (mS,A) and the following letter which has been circulated on the net with a (ms,a) version. |THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS |Congressional Research Service |Washington, D.C. 20540 | |To: Honorable Paul Findley |Attention: Miss Evans |From: American Law Division |Subject: Punctuation of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the | United States | |This will refer to your request of July 5, 1972 on behalf of Mr. James |H. Macklin for information relative to the captioned subject. Mr. |Macklin had noted that the punctuation of this amendment varied with |the different sources which have reproduced it. | |By resolution in 1789, Congress proposed twelve articles to the |legislatures of the several states as amendments to the Constitution |of the United States. Ten of these articles were ratified by the |legislatures of three-fourths of the states by 1791, including the |amendment in question which was adopted in this form: "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." 1 United |States Statutes at Large 21, 97. | |Information pertaining to the debate on this amendment in the state |and Federal legislatures may be found in: Schwartz, Bernard, "The Bill |of Rights: A Documentary History," 2 volumes, Chelsea House, New |York, 1971. This work retains the original spelling, grammar, and |style of all documentary material. | |[signature] |Paul L. Morgan |Legislative Attorney This letter seems fairly clear, but to double check, I looked up this reference, and found this version on page 1164. However this long 2 volume work doesn't clearly say (that I could find) that the original punctuation and capitalization were retained, even though the Legislative Attorney claims this is the case. Other references were consulted. The Guide to American Law, West Pub. Co. 1983, vol. 2, page 96 has a photo reproduction of the Bill of Rights - but unfortunately it is much reduced and not extremely clear. It is difficult to see the commas, if any, but State (in the middle phrase "free State" seems to be capitalized. The Encyclopedia Britannica, 15/e, Micropedia, Volume 3, p. 573 gives the (M,S,A,) version of the 2nd. As do Constitutional Law: civil liberty and individual rights, 2/e, by William Cohen and John Kaplan, Foundation Press, 1982, Mineola, N.Y., and Prof. W. Van Alstyne in his excellent essay "The Second Amendment and The Personal Right to Arms" (Duke Law Journal, 43:1236, 1994.) I found some other variations in other books, and then found what may be the most authoritative book I can find. It is "The Constitution of the United States of America" by The Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, 1982, J. H. Killian, editor, published by the U.S. Gov't Printing Office in 1987. This large book has *two* versions of the 2nd Amendment. The first one is (M,S,A,) given in a section entitled "literal print". Then later, in the main section of the book covering the analyses and discussion, is the (MS,A) version. I claim is that this book is a better reference than the 1972 letter above since it is more recent, and it is a formal publication of the same organization. Reading the two forms provides an understanding of the original way the Amendment was written, and then shows a 'modern' version. Next, I located a facsimile copy of the Bill of Rights. This is a facsimile of the copy in the National Archives, and I carefully inspected it with the help of our Documents Librarian. There is no date on it, but it has been in our library collection since before 1976. There clearly are 3 commas. State is clearly capitalized. (The capital form of the letter S is used, the curly one which looks like a treble clef sign.) The initial letters of Militia and Arms needed more inspection since they were written in the same style of lower case letters. (The m is written in the same form as an m in the middle of a word, wavy-like. The a has the rounded form of a cursive a in the middle of a word, rather than with two angled sides meeting at an acute angle at the top with a horizontal cross-bar in the middle. However each was larger than a) the other letters in its word or surrounding words, and b) the same letters used to start other words in the document. These two letters were approximately 1 1/2 the height of the uncapitalized letters. We both concluded that they were intended to be capital letters, and so this is (M,S,A,). All of this is based on the assumption that the "engrossed" Bill of Rights in the National Archives is the "original" Bill of Rights. The lovely engrossed Constitution which we all recognize is actually a hand-written copy which was made for signing, after printed drafts were used and the final version had been printed and agreed upon. (This story is told in "United States Constitution" Published for the Bicentennial of its Adoption in 1787 by the Library of Congress in association with The Arion Press, San Francisco, 1987. Incidently the version of the 2nd in this book is (M,s,a,). However this book also says, "Changes for the uniformity of typographic style have been made by the printers.") I can find no indication that the Bill of Rights was finalized in printed form first, and so it appears that the engrossed copy is the original. I also have a facsimile copy of the Bill of Rights which I obtained during the Bicentennial celebration. It was sponsored by a corporation "in cooperation with the National Archives." It has exactly the same (M,S,A,) version as the facsimile in my University Library. However this facsimile has on it, "The original is not legible in several places and this copy has been retouched for legibility." I'm not sure of all the places which were retouched (I've found a couple in the 6th and 10th Amendments), but in the previous facsimile mentioned, the 2nd is fully legible and appeared the same as in my copy. The printed version accompanying my facsimile copy has the (M,S,A,) version. The conclusion is that the (M,S,A,) version is the original, and that the other versions represent changes for the sake of modernization or for other reasons. 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. --henry schaffer _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
