Second amendment - the attacks will never stop apparently

It will only stop when they get ALL the guns, then they will switch to knifes...

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These anti second amendment folks just keep popping back up no matter how many times reality knocks them into the dirt.

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Maybe they are just anti-gun and want to repeal the 2nd Amend. Don't they have the 1st Amend right to voice their opinions on the matter?

I see nothing wrong with people who disagree with our right to keep and bear arms voicing their opinion. I may disagree with them, but it's their right to pursue the change they desire.

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It is refreshing though to read the comments and see there are a surprising number of "gun nuts" who make solid and respectful contributions in support of citizens rights.

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I believe that the Fourth Amendment helps to protect the Second Amendment, which in turn helps to protect the First Amendment.

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From its inclusion in the Constitution in 1791 until 2008, it was not understood to give Americans a personal right to have a gun. And then it changed, in a profound way.

Prior to 2008, there was a public conversation – often, in academic writings funded by the National Rifle Association – about whether the Amendment should go beyond protecting the arming of state militias, to allow Americans to arm themselves for personal use.

The Supreme Court finally accepted that expanded view,

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All of this is utter horseshite.

Declaring the Second Amendment to be an individual right was in no way a new interpretation or expansion. Heller was the first time the Court every looked at the issue. Different groups argued for years over the meaning but there was no serious state impingement on the ability to own guns until D.C. and Illinois started banning the ownership of handguns in the late 2000s. That was the first time the U.S. Supreme Court ever looked at the issue.


Now, if these guys want to argue that the right only belongs with members of the militia (known as the the Collective Right Argument) then they need to take a look at who was considered to be "militia" during the drafting of the Constitution. "Militia" was every able-bodied male. So according to their own argument, able-bodied men have the right to possess firearms to the exclusion of women. I'm sure that will go over well with the Feminist.

Or we could simply look at how the guy who wrote the Second Amendment explained it:

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[The Constitution preserves] the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation (where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. - James Madison

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Hell, it's on the very short list of things on which Hamilton and Madison agreed.

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The constitution shall never be construed...to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms. - Alexander Hamilton

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