No article answered Bogus because he cited nothing about the right to bear arms supporting slavery. The most prominent early demand for this right was in the northern states. But his thesis has recently gone viral, and here ’s what I’ve replied to enquiries: My book The Founders’ Second Amendment book goes into great detail on the reasons for ratification of the Second Amendment, which was inspired by the British disarming of the Americans, not slavery. The first state to declare the right to keep and bear arms was Pennsylvania, in 1776. When the state ratification conventions considered the proposed Constitution without a Bill of Rights in 1787-88, a bill of rights with the right to bear arms was proposed by Samuel Adams in the Massachusetts convention, by the Dissent of the Minority in the Pennsylvania convention, and by the entire New Hampshire convention. When the Virginia convention debated the issue, George Mason recalled how the British sought to disarm the Americans. Slavery was never mentioned in the above context. It was the denial of the right to bear arms to all that supported slavery, not the Second Amendment. As shown in my book Securing Civil Rights: Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms, the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment sought to correct this by extending the right to all, including African Americans. Steve
Stephen P. Halbrook Attorney at Law 3925 Chain Bridge Road, Suite 403 Fairfax, VA 22030 Tel. (703) 352-7276 Fax (703) 359-0938 Email: [email protected] Website: _www.stephenhalbrook.com_ (http://www.stephenhalbrook.com/) In a message dated 1/17/2013 10:58:52 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes: See http://prospect.org/article/how-gun-control-got-murdered to understand the orientation of Carl Bogus. Of course Bogus' orientation does not mean that he would lie or distort the facts of his research like Bellesiles did; no, I mean only to suggest caution is needed and so his assertions need checking. Note the Violence Policy Center writes "First, it [Bogus' thesis] supports the view that the amendment does not grant individuals a right to keep and bear arms for their own purposes; rather it only protects the right to bear arms within the militia, as defined within the main body of the Constitution, under the joint control of the federal and state governments." (see http://www.vpc.org/fact_sht/hidhist.htm ). I don't recall if this argument was presented in Heller, but the USSC did consider history when it decided the right belonged to individuals. So, I might suggest that Bogus' thesis has been found to be . . . well, bogus and by the highest legal authority in the land. I might also suggest you examine Bogus' evidence for his suggestions -- like Cramer did for Bellesiles. Phil ____________________________________ From: Raymond Kessler <[email protected]> To: Firearmsregprof <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2013 6:25 PM Subject: Slavery and Second Amendment. After much research, I finally found the Carl Bogus _article_ (http://www.saf.org/LawReviews/Bogus2.htm) that suggests that the Second Amendment was ratified to preseve slavery. Bogus states: "The Second Amendment was not enacted to provide a check on government tyranny; rather, it was written to assure the Southern states that Congress would not undermine the slave system by using its newly acquired constitutional authority over the militia to disarm the state militia and thereby destroy the South's principal instrument of slave control. In effect, the Second Amendment supplemented the slavery compromise made at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and obliquely codified in other constitutional provisions." I’d appreciate your comments on this thesis and article. Did anyone write a rebuttal? Thanks Ray Raymond G. Kessler, M.A., J.D. Professor of Criminal Justice Sul Ross State University Alpine, TX 79830 Office phone: 432 837-8166 Please feel free to check out my blog at http://crimelawandjustice.blogspot.com/ _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see _http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof_ (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. _______________________________________________ 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.
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