Federal Judiciary

Feddie v. Publius: On Original Meaning and the Second Amendment

By Feddie

Dearest Publius:

While it is true that the "colonial era has passed," the colonial Constitution is still with us. You may recall that "we the people" entered into a compact of sorts vis-a-vis this Constitution, and agreed to certain terms. We also recognized certain natural rights "retained" by the people, some of which were enumerated. One of those rights was to right to "bear arms." And while I understand that you and others like to think that there is a case to be made for viewing the Second Amendment as a collective-based right (i.e., that the people only have the right to own guns as members of a militia), no legal scholar worth his salt really believes that to be the case. Heck, even Larry Tribe has conceded the obvious. But why take his word for it. Let's see what Justice Joseph Story has to say on the matter, shall we?:

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Full post as published by ConfirmThem on March 27, 2008 (boomark / email).