2nd Amendment Common Sense

[reneet]

Pleasantly surprised!

Denny Hatch Business Newsletter

excerpt ...

I was thrilled, having never seen the inside of the Supreme Court, let alone seen and heard one of the justices in action and in person.

We walked into the magnificent Court chamber with its raised bench where the nine justices sit and its 44-foot ceilings. In the middle of the room, Justice Scalia stood at a small portable lectern taking questions from a roomful of incredibly smart teenagers.

One student asked him about the possibility of gun control. In its long history, the Court has heard only five Second Amendment cases, the most recent being Lewis v. U.S. in 1980. Since that time, gun control has become a “red meat” issue for conservatives, liberals and everyone in between. I felt truly blessed to have the opportunity to see this hallowed place and to get a sense of how the current Court might rule if such a case came up.

“The Constitution is very clear on the subject,” Scalia told the group. “ ‘The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.’ These are words of one and two syllables with no shades of meaning or ambiguities.”

“But what about the first part,” the student countered, “about maintaining a militia?”

Scalia replied, “‘A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state,’ is how the Amendment starts. But that in no way negates or alters the second clause that ‘the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.’”

“But times are different now,” the young man persisted.

“The Constitution is not a wish list,” Scalia said. “ It does not change with the fashions of the times. The Constitution is the law of the land. The framers made it possible to change the law. If the people want restrictions on guns, you have to pass a constitutional amendment.”

[bgary]

Wow. Awesome!

[LadyinBlue]

Renee,

Thank you so much for sharing this awesome article.

The author certainly understands the power of words and guns and the protection of our rights under the Constitution.

But his statement...

"An amendment to the Constitution requires a vote by two-thirds of both houses of Congress and ratification by three-quarters of the state legislatures. That’s 38 states—an absolute impossibility. More than 12 states have hunting and gun cultures, and their state representatives would never ratify it."...needs to be realized by more of the loud-mouthed Hollywood types and the left-wing media.

Great Post!

~Nanci~

[eerw]

great read..thanks..

the restrictions can be difficult..but its nice to see they cannot do away with the second amendment.

[sfinney]

Great article.

That helps explain exactly why the left continues to find ever new ways to try to "intrepret" the 2nd Ammendment, rather than changing it, despite its use of "words of one and two syllables".

[mjbine]

Great article!

[davidball]

I also very much liked this part (my emphasis):

"The First Amendment guarantees our freedoms of religion, speech, the press and our right to peaceably assemble. The Second Amendment guarantees the right of the people to bear arms.

. . . I find it exhilarating that the founders treated me as an adult and granted me the right to use these powerful weapons—guns and words."

[gunny]

WOW! Thanks for posting that Reneet. Great read.

[wide45]

I think the biggest fight of the future is to force the hand of those in power to treat the rest of us like adults -- and to behave that way themselves

[dirty whiteboy]

Recently, and how sweet it was!

"To summarize, we conclude that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. That right existed prior to the formation of the new government under the Constitution and was premised on the private use of arms for activities such as hunting and self-defense, the latter being understood as resistance to either private lawlessness or the depredations of a tyrannical government (or a threat from abroad). In addition, the right to keep and bear arms had the important and salutary civic purpose of helping to preserve the citizen militia."

DC Circut court of appeals 3/09/2007