----- Original Message ----- From: "Jon Roland" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 11:15 AM Subject: [inbox] Re: discussion: is gun registration unconstitutional?
> The Founders were somewhat more literal-minded than lawyers today in the way > they wrote constitutions and expected them to be interpreted. They never > intended doctrines of "implied" or "inherent" powers to hold the sway they > do today. "Implied" powers were only to administer a delegated power, not to > do whatever it might take to achieve an objective that a delegated power > might be used to try to accomplish. Hmmm. Hamilton argued that the implied powers of the elastic clause allowed federal chartering of a bank; Jefferson said that has convenient as that might be, it wasn't a delegated power. A few years later, Jefferson had a case come up that encouraged him to take an expansive view of the implied powers of the Constitution: Louisiana. >From all that I have read, the Framers were pretty pragmatic men. They had principles, but first and foremost, they were designing a government to look out for the common good. I'm sure that they would be startled by the mistrust that some have of an armed population; but if you gave them a strong and convincing argument for how a gun control law could reduce violence, I suspect that many would have been willing to entertain the question--although I doubt that they would the arguments currently being advanced for gun control persuasive. Jefferson would probably find some of the arguments persuasive the other direction.
