🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Nov7.080407.25806@netcom.com>, strnlght@netcom.com (David Sternlight) writes:
> 
> Michael T. Palmer argues that owning guns is a right guaranteed by the
> Constitution which the State has no right to intervene in.
> 
> He is mistaken, and the argument itself is a tired piece of NRA propaganda.
> A careful reading of the Constitution, as well as the interpretation of
> many Constitutional scholars and the courts is that the relevant provision
> is a Militia clause, not an individual gun clause. NRA types always
> omit the Militia part of the language of the Constitution, and quote
> the second part "the right to keep and bear arms" completely out of
> context, often concealing their shoddy rhetoric by capitalizing the
> leading "the" in the phrase to conceal that lead-in material has
> been suppressed.

Three problems with this argument, David:

First, the United States Senate, in a 1982 report titled 
"The Right to Keep and Bear Arms," has specifically said that
"what is protected is an individual right of a private citizen
to own and carry firearms in a peaceful manner."

Second, the amendment never says that it is only the *militia* who
has a right to keep and bear arms. It says that in order in *insure*
a well-regulated militia, the right to keep and bear arms shall not
be infringed. 

And even if we do conclude that only the militia can keep and bear
arms, here is Webster's definition of a militia:

	mi-li-tia \me-'lish-e\
	[L, military service, fr. milit-, miles]
	1: a part of the organized armed forces of a country liable to call
	     only in emergency
	2: the whole body of able-bodied male citizens declared by law as being
	     subject to call to military service
	-- mi-li-tia-man \-men\ n

Both these definitions are basically the same: people who *can* serve
in the military by way of the draft, *NOT* exclusively military
personnel.

Most people tend to assume that "militia" == "military"; this is
incorrect. Similar roots don't necessary imply similar meanings;
compare "pedestrian" and "pediatrist".

Steve


-- 
Steven Miale - spm2d@virginia.edu   | Don't blame me -
University of Virginia              | I voted Libertarian.
Charlottesville, Virginia           |