7 Dead, Including 18 Children In Elementary School Shooting In Newtown, Conn.
12-15-2012, 12:34 PM
Quote: (12-15-2012 12:25 PM)Samseau Wrote:
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.
How did you miss that part iknowexactly? I mean this is some seriously plain language, not sure how it is difficult to understand.
Well, is that "rights" statement completely unrelated to the previous clause?
I'm not being obtuse, constitutional scholars agree it's a poorly written sentence that's not clear in its intent by current grammar standards. Do you think the "well regulated millitia part" doesn't have any relation to the rest of the sentence?
Here's how a stricter gun control advocate might interpret it (my sentence) :
"In order to have a well-regulated militias for freedom's sake, people in or reasonably expected to be needed in A WELL_REGULATED MILITIA shall be allowed to have arms consistent with a well-regulated militia. "
For one thing, I don't think there was a standing army then. The idea of a Militia defending against someone like the British or anyone else is wholly anachronistic.
In the geopolitical state at the time, invasion of the US by other than the British was pretty unrealistic. There was literally no need for an Army, unless we were already exterminating the Native Americans. Now we have one because we're so powerful that we want to rule the whole world, or force it to act in our interests.
The idea of a globally mobile force that can, in armament terms, literally kill anyone in the whole world within in an hour (This is obviously insane, but you could just nuke the city the Chinese leaders are in for example. Nuclear sub off the coast -- I think the missile would get there in less than 20 minutes) would be inconceivable before the invention of the internal combustion engine and jet plane.
They could not possibly see the world we live in. Including gang-bangers, Asperger kids whose MOTHERS buy them arsenals. As a matter of practice, "bums" probably would have found it impossible to afford guns. The Founders were in my opinion definitely thinking about functioning adult males, established as reliable members of society by their work. That standard would have screened out this kid, the Norway guy? ( I don't know if he had a job) , not Oswald I guess ( Book Depository) .
I don't really know exactly what they meant by a free state. The gun owners of the US can't conceivably fight a SWAT team backed up by National Guard and Army copters if they decide to secede, etc. Who's going to invade us, the Chinese?
However, on NRA side, the Supreme Court, (whose families are far, far away from any ghetto or non-prep-school violence), have agreed that militia connection is NOT needed for gun ownership:
( from Wikipedia
"In 2008 and 2010, the Supreme Court issued two Second Amendment decisions. In District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), the Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to possess a firearm, unconnected to service in a militia[1][2] and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home."