Posted on 07/13/2006 12:51:11 AM PDT by neverdem
The public education system has tremendous influence in shaping the views of millions of young Americans. In many cases, the public school system is the only exposure that many children have to the Bill of the Rights. It is imperative, therefore, to ensure that our nation's teachers are enlightening our young people and teaching them correctly about our rights and the meaning behind them. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of educators in the United States appear to promote an anti-gun agenda or, at the very least, prefer not to teach the Second Amendment in its true light. We base this opinion, in part, on the fact that the United States Parent-Teacher Association and the National Education Association are both openly anti-gun organizations. We further base our opinion on the fact that the public education system at large seems aligned with the left-leaning socialist agenda that also dominates the dinosaur media and the Democractic Party. These are organizations and individuals who side with the enemy during wartime, attack Christian expression while simultaneously supporting public, other-than-Christian religious expression, and support the licensing and registration of guns while secretly conniving to confiscate every one of them.
These are the same people who try to deny that the Second Amendment applies to you and me, but applies to the National Guard instead. These are the same people who conjured up the term, "assault rifle" in an effort to ban semi-automatic rifles. They claim that when the Constitution was written, the Founding Fathers never intended it to apply to the types of firearm technology available today.
Any red-blooded, patriotic American who understands the true meaning of the Second Amendment is closer in spirit to our Founding Fathers than the sniveling, whiners who call themselves intellectuals. As such, we know that the right to keep and bear arms applies to the American people and is not restricted to muskets. We can further prove the intent of the Founding Fathers by observing how they lived and by reading many of the supporting articles and letters that outline their philosophy on the symbiotic relationship between an armed populace and a government that serves its people.
It is time to demand that our nation's education system duly recognize our Bill of Rights and teach the Second Amendment according to its true intent. You can start by talking to your child and asking them if they are learning about the Constitution in school. If so, take a look at their textbook and see if the Second Amendment is accurately reported. If there is a problem with the textbook or if the Second Amendment is not being taught at all, you may want to talk to your child's principal. You may also want to team up with other parents who share the same views. Teachers have a responsibility to our children and we have a responsibility to see that our nation's teachers are doing their jobs properly.
Jennifer Freeman is Executive Director and co-founder of Liberty Belles, a grass-roots organization dedicated to restoring and preserving the Second Amendment.
http://www.libertybelles.org
jennifer@libertybelles.org
Better start reading now. You've got a long way to go before you have anywhere near the historical perspective you ought to have to even be educated enough to make a lick of sense. Your Brady Bunch reasoning is getting a bit much to take.
Also, that snippet from 1856 was about applying the Constitution to the new Territories. This was to illustrate the view our government had up until just recently when gun-banning folks like yourself decided that via judicial malfeasance you can make a "living Constitution" mean anything you want it to.
Your "incorporation" doctrine is the last gasp of a dying mindset. One that is trying to preserve some imaginary State power to ignore basic human Rights and institute tyranny at the State level. This is as wrong headed legally as it is philosophically. Neither the State, nor the FedGov has the power, nor the "right", to infringe on our Rights as Individuals.
Not without suffering the consequences at least...
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed, from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Thomas Jefferson, 1787
Yep. Just as the Constitution applied to the states. So?
It said that "the people of said Territory shall be entitled to the right to keep and bear arms ... as defined in the constitution of the United States". And that definition was that the federal government shall not infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms as part of a Militia.
"This was to illustrate the view our government had up until just recently"
Up until just recently? United States v. Cruikshank was an 1875 case where the U.S. Supreme Court found that the 2nd Amendment "has no other effect than to restrict the powers of the national government".
They even went further by saying that NONE of the BOR applied to the states:
"This, like the other amendments proposed and adopted at the same time, was not intended to limit the powers of the State Government in respect to their own citizens, but to operate upon the National Government alone."
Bullsh*t. In the First Amendment, it says "Congress shall make no law". This does not carry over into the Second that clearly states "shall not be infringed" and makes no distinction as to who may not infringe on said Right. In fact, the Constitution explicitly state that the "Supreme law of the Land" and "laws of any State notwithstanding" are subject to "shall not be infringed". Your mindless maundering notwithstanding, it means exactly what it says.
Your Cruickshank argument has been refuted how many times now? Do we really need to rehash it again?
You don't seem to like people having Rights very much. Are you SURE you are on the correct website? Your logic would go over a lot better on DU.
"The prohibition is general. No clause in the Constitution could by rule of construction be conceived to give Congress the power to disarm the people. Such a flagitious attempt could only be made under some general pretense by a state legislature. But if in blind pursuit of inordinate power, either should attempt it, this amendment may be appealed to as a restraint on both."
-- William Rawle, 1825
So, California can't disarm the people, eh?
But if in blind pursuit of inordinate power, either should attempt it, this amendment may be appealed to as a restraint on both." Let's see... you don't like guns. You don't like any of the post Civil War reforms meant to apply Rights to freed slaves. You prefer legal alterations of meaning instead of the plain language used. You seem extraordinarily dogged on the subject.
Do you want a return to the pre-civil war days? How many slaves do you want to own? Or do you just want to keep those other races fro mriding your bus or drinking from your water fountain? What other kinds of abuses or individual freedom would you like to see enacted at the State level? Are you a fan of using emminent domain to transfer private property to private developers as well?
Bobby... you just ain't too bright are you boy...
Gobbledygook.
Article VI states that This Constitution shall be the supreme law of the land -- no matter what had existed before -- and the states and the federal government are bound by it.
It does NOT say that EVERYTHING in the constitution applies to the states.
Haven't you ever, in your life, signed a contract that specifies your responsibilities and the other party's responsibilities? Come on.
And by any restrictions placed on general government to protect our Rights. It was the entire PURPOSE of having a Bill of Rights in the first place. That because some States were ignoring some Rights seen as essential, and because there was worry that a strong central authority was seen as dangerous to individual liberty, that they put those restrictions on legislative and judicial action at the highest level they could where they would apply to ALL US citizens.
But some folks don't like that very much. It ruins their chances of passing local ordnances or State laws that can be used to remove those Rights and keep the public in check.
Folks like you apparently.
Fine. See you on the next thread. I'm done with you on this one.
Personal attacks? Try "accurate description". If the shoe fits, wear it.
"Baloney. The "freedom of assembly" is a collective right."
The "freedom of assembly" is a collective right? Baloney!
"Fine. See you on the next thread. I'm done with you on this one."
Thank God!
We are saying the same thing. I am doing it by explaining the plain english structure to the clause rather than just maintaining the interpretation you state plainly. Those that can understand the plain sense, already do. Those that can't or won't must be led to do so by clear reasoning and understanding.
Well, tpaine, robertpaulsen is right again.
Amusing that you think so robert.
Let's examine the quote.
"The prohibition is general. No clause in the Constitution could by rule of construction be conceived to give Congress the power to disarm the people. Such a flagitious attempt could only be made under some general pretense by a state legislature. But if in blind pursuit of inordinate power, either should attempt it, this amendment may be appealed to as a restraint on both."
-- William Rawle, 1825
So, California can't disarm the people, eh?
Well, if CA [or the feds] "-- in blind pursuit of inordinate power, either should attempt it, this [2nd] amendment may be appealed to as a restraint on both. --"
That's what Rawles wrote bob, yet you imagine he didn't.
Your mind is playing strange tricks on you if you think the quote above backs your position here:
Ready for the big one? California can ban all guns if they so chose. There's nothing in the state constitution (one of six states, I believe) about the right to keep and bear arms.
129 posted on 11/20/2003 1:30 PM PST by robertpaulsen
It is a right assigned to a group -- the assembled. Defend how it is an individual right.
If you were to assemble by yourself on a streetcorner, you'd probably get a ticket for loitering or vagrancy ... or solicitation. I'd love to see you in front of a judge defending your individual "right to assemble".
You guys are funny.
"It is a right assigned to a group -- the assembled."
Defend how it is a collective right.
Your logic is funny.
But nowhere does the author say that California cannot do it.
I was right. And as House would say, "Now there were three wasted words".
It's a right only held when one is a member of a group.
How can "freedom of assembly" be an individual right?
It's the Right, for a bunch of Individuals, to form groups. Your attempts to ascribe a varient meaning are beyond the pale.
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