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To: robertpaulsen
pg 18

In determining whether the Second Amendment’s guarantee is an individual one, or some sort of collective right, the most important word is the one the drafters chose to describe the holders of the right—“the people.” That term is found in the First, Second, Fourth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments. It has never been doubted that these provisions were designed to protect the interests of individuals against government intrusion, interference, or usurpation. We also note that the Tenth Amendment—“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people”—indicates that the authors of the Bill of Rights were perfectly capable of distinguishing between “the people,” on the one hand, and “the states,” on the other. The natural reading of “the right of the people” in the Second Amendment would accord with usage elsewhere in the Bill of Rights.

Whoops... Sorry Bobby... if I keep doing this, it's really going to make you look like an idiot isn't it?

970 posted on 03/10/2007 10:02:09 PM PST by Dead Corpse (What would a free man do?)
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To: Dead Corpse
The 4th amendment protects non-citizens, doesn't it? Why doesn't the second? Both amendments say "people".

Yet you say only citizens may keep and bear arms?

991 posted on 03/10/2007 10:30:46 PM PST by robertpaulsen
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