I would argue that gun registration is unconstitutional for the following reasons:
a) The purpose of the Second Amendment is to ensure the continued existence of the militia --where the militia consists of all citizens. Congress controls who commands the militia --in the event of an unconstitutional insurrection or a foreign threat, Congress may place the militia under the command of the President.
b) However, the threat to the Constitution may arise within the Executive Branch --e.g, a President who refuses to recognize a Congressional impeachment/removal and who is supported by some faction within the federal military. In that event, Congress may call upon the State Governors and the militias under their command for protection --just as Congress had to flee to the protection of the Princeton New Jersey militia in 1783 when a unit of rebellious Continental Army soldiers surrounded Independence Hall and demanded back pay.
c) The possibility of a rogue President is explicitly recognized with the Constitution --which states that a President may be impeached for Treason, where Treason is defined as waging war on the United States.
d) There is NO mechanism in the Constitution to protect the Constitution and the Congress from a rogue President other than command of the militia by State Governors. (Congress's control of the District of Columbia is of value, but is not sufficient. )
e) It is ridiculous to argue that the Founders gave Congress the unique power to remove the President (and any other federal official) from power yet intended to leave Congress totally vulnerable to a dictator.
f)After all, when the Bill of Rights was developed only seven years had elapsed since the Newburgh Conspiracy --where the Continental Army Officer Corps debated whether to overthrow Congress. It took the personal intervention of George Washington to halt that mutiny. The Founders were strongly influenced by the history of the ancient Roman Republic when designing the Constitution --there were repeated references to the threat of an American Julius Caesar. The Founders were well aware that , after the fall of the Roman Republic, humanity had lived under dictators for 1800 years until the American Revolution.
g) The Founders gave Congress broad powers but also imposed several restraints via the Bill of Rights. The Congress controls who commands the militia , but a specific Congress cannot do away with the militia --just as a specific Congress cannot fund the federal military beyond it's two year term nor can it do away with the rights to free speech, assembly, free press, and the right to vote. The reason is that if a specific Congress destroyed those rights, it would endanger the continued existence of the Constitution and the existence of future Congresses.
h) Viewed in this light, gun registration is unconstitutional because it provides the means for disarmment of the militia by the federal military.
i) Gun registration also destroys the UNIQUE virtue of the militia -- it's ability to deter and forestall secret conspiracies and coups. A secret cabal might be able to seize federal armories , arrest general officers, etc. But it is impossible to covertly disarm the militia or to seize command of it.
j) The fact that the US has been largely free of the plots which are common in other nations illustrates the deterrent value provided by the mere existence of the militia. The fact that millions of Americans possessed unregistered firearms is one reason why America's powerful and wealthy responded to the social unrest of the Great Depression by electing Franklin Roosevelt --instead of supporting a dictator like Adolph Hitler, the choice of Germany's industrialists.
k) It disturbs me that so many constitutional lawyers focus on trival, irrelevent nits, instead of trying to understand the intent of the Founders and the lessons of history in order to determine how the Constitution should be adapted to today's world. The social forces in the US today greatly resemble those in the Roman Republic after the defeat of Carthage and the rise of Rome's global empire. Similar dangers exist as well.
Don Williams; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
