The Second Amendment
There is a tendency among Democrats and liberals to try and do intellectual gymnastics to make the Second Amendment into something it isn't. They try and make it into some sort of 'collective' right. They try and make it into something that is reserved for the states. They try and make it into the National Guard. In rare cases, they try and make it that it somehow reflects the Army.
Rarely do they address the provable fact that this is in fact an individual right that belongs to every American and that it gives them the right not just to sporting or hunting arms, but to military grade and militarily usable firearms. I am speaking specifically of firearms that are designed with the specific intent of killing human beings.
The last time the Supreme Court weighed in on the Second Amendment, they ruled that a sawed off shotgun could be banned because it had no conceivable military value (this was pre-Vietnam - a sawed off shotgun has immense military value in a jungle). Note that they did not rule that it could be banned because it didn't have sporting value - quite the opposite; it was military value that was the determining factor as to whether or not the item could be banned, and if it had military value, it couldn't be.
Let's explore this a bit more.
In the United States of America, there is no such thing as a collective right. Our country's name is not abbreviated with CCCP...we are not a collectivist unit. We are a country of individuals, and our Constitution grants specific and individual rights to individual people. The Second Amendment is no more a collective right than is the Fourth Amendment or the First Amendment. That is to say, not at all. Each person individually holds each right ennumerated by our Constitution.
The states don't have rights. The feds don't have rights. They have powers and they have responsibilities. Within the scope of the Constitution, only people have rights. This is consistent throughout the entire document and requires no intellectual contortions to see. Examine the document and you will find a regular and applied use of the word 'rights' with respect to people only.
The Second Amendment does not apply to the National Guard, Army, or any other governmental agency except as a preventative device to stop interference from said agencies. As stated above, no branch of the government has rights within the Constitution. Only the people do. When they choose to relinquish that right through Constitutional means, it is even then only a power or responsibility of the government...never a right.
So...if you hate the Second Amendment, don't try and make it into something it isn't. Be a man...be an adult...and say you want to change it.
Bartleby
Rarely do they address the provable fact that this is in fact an individual right that belongs to every American and that it gives them the right not just to sporting or hunting arms, but to military grade and militarily usable firearms. I am speaking specifically of firearms that are designed with the specific intent of killing human beings.
The last time the Supreme Court weighed in on the Second Amendment, they ruled that a sawed off shotgun could be banned because it had no conceivable military value (this was pre-Vietnam - a sawed off shotgun has immense military value in a jungle). Note that they did not rule that it could be banned because it didn't have sporting value - quite the opposite; it was military value that was the determining factor as to whether or not the item could be banned, and if it had military value, it couldn't be.
Let's explore this a bit more.
In the United States of America, there is no such thing as a collective right. Our country's name is not abbreviated with CCCP...we are not a collectivist unit. We are a country of individuals, and our Constitution grants specific and individual rights to individual people. The Second Amendment is no more a collective right than is the Fourth Amendment or the First Amendment. That is to say, not at all. Each person individually holds each right ennumerated by our Constitution.
The states don't have rights. The feds don't have rights. They have powers and they have responsibilities. Within the scope of the Constitution, only people have rights. This is consistent throughout the entire document and requires no intellectual contortions to see. Examine the document and you will find a regular and applied use of the word 'rights' with respect to people only.
The Second Amendment does not apply to the National Guard, Army, or any other governmental agency except as a preventative device to stop interference from said agencies. As stated above, no branch of the government has rights within the Constitution. Only the people do. When they choose to relinquish that right through Constitutional means, it is even then only a power or responsibility of the government...never a right.
So...if you hate the Second Amendment, don't try and make it into something it isn't. Be a man...be an adult...and say you want to change it.
Bartleby
posted by Bartleby at 10:46 PM
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