Sunday, July 20, 2008

United States Constitution

The US Constitution was written and singed in 1787. It has been amended 27 times. Recently the US Supreme Court ruled on the second amendment. The Second amendment reads;

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.”

The court ruled 5 to 4 in favor of the 2nd amendment. It is not that I disagree with the ruling, but that the court had 4 members that voted against “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” My question is what part of “shall not be infringed” do these four judges not understand?

The people who wrote and voted on the Constitution were common folk. They spoke plain English. To me the plain and littoral meaning of “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed” means that any person has the right to bear arms period. No ifs, ands or buts about it. The arms of the day in 1787 meant pistol, rifle and cannon. They had recently fought a revolution against England where the King of England had declared colonists did not have the right to bear arms. Being revolutionists, they buried their arms.

Does anyone really think that after fighting a revolution for independence, they would give up their “arms?” When it comes to the US Constitution, you could call me a “constitutionalist.” I believe the US Constitution is not to be reinterpreted as time goes by. I believe its meaning and intent is the same today as it was in 1787. If we the people want to change the meaning of the Constitution there is a mechanism for doing so. This mechanism is called an Amendment.

1 Comments:

At 5:29 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Another big, Second-Amendment case shaping up -- against the gun-grabbers of Jena, Louisiana
http://www.nationalist.org/docs/law/jena.html

 

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