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
Why is it that everybody conveniently seems to oversee the "well regulated Militia" part of the 2nd amendment? That seems to be the first and foremost part of the amendment, to fight or suppress a tyrannical government.
It's NOT overlooked by moderates in the middle or progressives on the left. It's only ignored by conservatives who want 2nd amendment to be whatever they wish it to be.
Just like I was saying, the right always seems to forget the "well regulated militia" part of the amendment.
I guess the two of you know better how to interpret the 2nd Amendment than the individuals who helped draft it...
"I ask, Sir,
what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them."
George Mason
Co-author of the Second Amendment
during Virginia's Convention to Ratify the Constitution, 1788
"And that the said
Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the Press, or the rights of Conscience; or
to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; …"
Samuel Adams
quoted in the Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, August 20, 1789, "Propositions submitted to the Convention of this State"
"The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand
arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as property. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside …
Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."
Thomas Paine
"The great
object is that every man be armed."
"
Everyone who is able may have a gun."
Patrick Henry
"Those who hammer their guns into plowshares will plow for those who do not."
Thomas Jefferson
Third President of the United States
"The best we can help for concerning the
people at large is that they be properly armed."
Alexander Hamilton
The Federalist Papers at 184-8
You've seen it here first, folks:
El Perro Mayor and
knowone have a better grasp on the 2nd Amendment and the intended purpose of such than the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton, Samuel Adams and George Mason. Thanks for clearing that up for us, guys! You must be beating thinktank job offers away with a stick!
Jefferson also warned against treating the Constitution as "a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist, and shape into any form they please." Your progressive attitudes regarding an activist judiciary re-writing the Constitution are in direct conflict with this thought. But, again, I'm sure the two of you (amongst others in this country) probably have a firmer grasp of the Constitution and its purposes, as well as the intentions of the drafters, than do the drafters themselves. Forgive me.
