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US Constitution study guide: Difference between revisions
→Amendment 2 [right to bear arms]
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* justifies that protection by the need for a "well regulated Militia" | * justifies that protection by the need for a "well regulated Militia" | ||
* however, the individual right to keep and bear arms is not contingent (dependent) on that justification | * however, the individual right to keep and bear arms is not contingent (dependent) on that justification | ||
* the Supreme Court ruled in "District of Columbia v. Heller" (2008) that the right to bear arms is an individual right (overruling restrictions upon gun ownership) | |||
Issues, problems & limits: | Issues, problems & limits: | ||
* Courts have restricted the "right to bear arms" by limiting the type, size, and lethality or type of those weapons, generally maintaining the right for individuals to own those types of arms that would be used by a common "militia" (i.e., rifles, handguns, and not machine guns, tanks, etc.) | * Courts have restricted the "right to bear arms" by limiting the type, size, and lethality or type of those weapons, generally maintaining the right for individuals to own those types of arms that would be used by a common "militia" (i.e., rifles, handguns, and not machine guns, tanks, etc.) | ||
* Courts have also restricted or allowed localities to restrict the right to bear arms and to regulate such things as "conceal carry" (bearing an arm beneath one's clothing, i.e., not visible to others), automatic | * Courts have also restricted or allowed localities to restrict the right to bear arms and to regulate such things as "conceal carry" (bearing an arm beneath one's clothing, i.e., not visible to others), automatic | ||
* gun-control advocates (anti-2nd Amendment) argue that the Amendment creates a "collective" right, i.e., of the people in general, not of individuals | * gun-control advocates (anti-2nd Amendment) argue that the Amendment creates a "collective" right, i.e., of the people in general, not of individuals | ||
* however, "the right of the people" is understood to be an individual right, as per its same expression in the First, Fourth, Ninth & Tenth Amendments | |||
* some opponents of the 2nd Amendment protection "to bear arms" argue that the main clause of the sentence that constitutes the Amendment is "A well regulated Militia" | * some opponents of the 2nd Amendment protection "to bear arms" argue that the main clause of the sentence that constitutes the Amendment is "A well regulated Militia" | ||
* however that creates a non-sensical main clause, "A well regulated Militia shall not be infringed" | |||
* whereas the actual main clause is "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed" | |||
* by conventions of punctuation from the Founding era, the comma after "Arms" does not separate the subject ("the right") from the verb "infringed" | |||
* this type of sentence construction is found frequently across the Constitution itself and other documents from the period of it and the BOR's writing}}''' | |||
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. | A well regulated '''{{Militia|Militia | ||
* = part-time citizen soldiers | |||
* as opposed to a "professional" or "standing" (i.e. full time) army, which the founders distrusted}}''', being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. | |||
==={{#tip-text: Amendment 3|}}=== | ==={{#tip-text: Amendment 3|}}=== | ||