Posted on 07/05/2008 7:25:13 AM PDT by marktwain
The Second Amendment provides that “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.”
In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court held that the plain language of the amendment recognizes a personal right, belonging to “the people,” to possess firearms. The court rejected arguments that the Second Amendment simply permits the states to form, arm and maintain their own militias or the modern National Guard.
Heller arose out of the district’s complete ban on possession of usable handguns in the home. In the district, it is a crime to carry an unregistered firearm and the registration of handguns is prohibited. Registered long guns, such as shotguns, are allowed in the home, but they must be unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock. The result is that residents of the district have no legal means of defending themselves should an intruder enter their residences. They call 911 and hope a police cruiser is nearby.
Writing the majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia traced the origin of the right to bear arms to Great Britain where the eminent jurist William Blackstone described it as “the natural one of resistance and self-preservation.” Commentators in the years after ratification of the Second Amendment took a Blackstonian view of this right. St. George Tucker, one of the early republic’s most renowned constitutional scholars, described the amendment as “the true palladium of liberty” and acknowledged that “the right of self-defense is the first law of nature.”
Going forward in history, Justice Scalia examined post-Civil War state laws that prohibited blacks from owning firearms. Members of Congress and Freedmen’s Bureau officials protested that these laws infringed the federal constitutional “right of the people to keep and bear arms.” No one ventured to argue that the state laws were permissible because the Second Amendment did not apply to individuals. The language in 1866 was just as clear as it was in 1791.
Hence, the Heller Court affirmed that the Second Amendment protects individual rights and struck down the district’s total ban on weapons for home defense. The court also made clear that this right is not unlimited and that its holding should not cast doubt on reasonable restrictions prohibiting felons or the mentally ill from possessing firearms. Regulations prohibiting weapons in government buildings and other sensitive places also remain untouched.
The Supreme Court rightly deserves applause for its fidelity to the Constitution in deciding Heller. The case is perhaps the most significant decision of this century. However, Americans should not forget that this was a 5-4 decision. Four justices of the Supreme Court would have ignored the plain language and historical context of the amendment.
Believing themselves at liberty to rewrite fundamental law, these justices would leave Americans at the mercy of criminals and a future government tyranny. The Second Amendment is part of the same Bill of Rights that guarantees liberty of the press, the right of assembly and freedom of religious worship.
If a near majority of the court would attempt to erase the Second Amendment from the Constitution, what is to stop them from taking a cavalier approach to other constitutional rights?
While Americans should rejoice in the victory for individual rights in Heller, they should not forget that four justices of the nation’s highest court would have eradicated the right to bear arms. If only a slight majority of the court will respect the ancient and fundamental right of resistance and self-preservation, Americans should be concerned about the fate of other liberties enumerated in the Bill of Rights.
NRA was the first civil rights organization.
The “well regulated militia” in the second ammendment is the GOVERNMENT. Government troops in that time were referred to as the MILITIA. The right to bear arms is a means to protect us from the government getting too powerful, by We, the People “Regulating” the government.
I am still stunned that the decision only went 5-4....I expected 7-2 given how clear the issues were.
Does not portend well for the future.
The U.S. Constitution-it’s not just for drug dealers and pornographers anymore.
The four justices should be accountable for their decision. They should face demonstrations and hear raucous protest outside their offices. They should be aware of our outrage at their distortion of the Second Amendment. They should have hordes of reporters accosting them in their coming and going, demanding to know how they feel about these protestors and what they’d like to say to them and why did they rule as they did...
Tar and feathers are out of style, but we should be using the modern equivalent, the swarming media circus. The media may be biased but they can be manipulated; for whores, business is best where there are crowds.
Instead, we’re content because five of them left us with our rights intact. This time.
Cue my tagline.
....shall not be infringed.
This wan not a "great" V\victory
This was not a great victory....mercy
No . I will not even give yours up lol...
“Isn’t getting rid of drugs and porn worth a few rights?” NO. IT ISN’T. Because this is the “logic” of the left. And it is a logic which never ends. Our rights will have vanished and the left will still be looking for things to do...”for the greater good”.
You have a lot of anger. Try serving your country. If you have, quit the VVAW.
It was not liberals who paid rewards to garbage men if they found beer cans in my garbage when I lived in a dry county .
ROFL!!!
Thanks, I needed that!
Your posts are about drugs in Amsterdam, living in Paris, etc. Never heard a combat vet talk about drugs.
Your posts are about drugs in Amsterdam, living in Paris, etc. Never heard a combat vet talk about drugs.
Kids use drugs because illegal drugs are easier to obtain than alcohol. When Holland legalized pot, hard drug use among teens plummeted. A drug dealer doesn’t care about age. He wants to hook your kid on the hard stuff to increase his profit. We didn’t have drug dealers on every corner until we began the drug war.
58 posted on Thursday, June 26, 2008 11:06:12 by radioman
Radioman. Are drugs your Liberterian utopia?
not quite.
first, thank you for your service.
a well regulated militia means that the people, who make up the militia, need to be trained and supplied and available... regulated meant drilled and trained then...not restricted as in government regulations...
necessary for a free State... i believe refers not to the actual geographic border state, like maryland, but the state of being free... independent of government tyranny...
the second is an individual right to not be infringed by any government.
teeman8r
yes, but as i said, in my opinion, he’s misinterpreted but his misinterpretation counts... the founders wouldn’t protect the government if it were corrupt... and the US can be corrupted like all governments... the protection lies with the people, not the government.
teeman8r
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