The Second Amendment Doesn't Mean What it Says (Mass ACLU Barf-a-rama)

Massachusetts ACLU Loonies ^ | Mass ACLU

[Skooz]

Typical lefty ACLU rant, I suppose. I find it curious that on the Mass. ACLU web page devoted to the Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment is the only Amendment hyperlinked to a page in which the loonies attempt to tell us what to think about the subject.

[cruiserman]

I'm surprised the ACLU are willing to discount the teeth in their precious BOR.

[dark_lord]

However, the vast majority of constitutional experts agree that the right to keep and bear arms was intended to apply only to members of state-run, citizen militias.

A typical ACLU lie. The "state-run" part, that is. Notice how they slipped that in.

[Double Tap]

the Amendment does not grant any blanket right to own a gun nor does it stand in the way of rational, effective gun control.

The first part of that statement is absolutely correct. The Second Amendment does not grant anything. Sadly, the last part has been found to be true also. So far, the Second Amendment has not stopped any of the 20,000 plus unconstitutional gun laws from being passed into law and enforced vigorously.

[Joe Brower]

"How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words!" -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803), letter to John Pitts, January 21, 1776

[Skooz]

That one just made my ever-expanding list of "Excellent Quotes."

[dirtboy]

A For decades, both the national ACLU and its Massachsetts affiliates have agreed the Second Amendment guarantees only the rights of states to maintain militias.

Which is rather bizarre, considering that the 2nd A is surrounded by amendments that infer INDIVIDUAL rights. So we have the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th which deal with individual rights, the rights of states are not mentioned until the 10th, but the 2nd somehow sticks out like a sore thumb among all those other individual rights? And, even if we take the arguments of the ACLU, that the National Guard took the place of state militias, the feds have basically federalized the National Guard, so it no longer serves the role the ACLU is claiming for it.

This is just so easy to demolish. The problem is, the lefties just don't care that their arguments don't make sense.

[dead]

As the nation’s oldest and most prominent defender of individual rights, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) holds the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights in the highest regard.

First of all, the nation's oldest and largest defender of individual civil rights is the NRA.

Second of all, the ACLU has never embraced either the second or the tenth amendments, making them an extremely hypocritical defender of the rest.

[tet68]

in the late 1780s, people were still suspicious of any centralized federal government.

In the early 2000s, people were STILL suspicious of any
centralized federal government.

Yes, we have seen how the ACLU holds the constitution in regard.

In the early 2000s the people realized the truth about the
ACLU.

[Ohioan]

To understand the ACLU, you need to understand their mission. It has always been to undermine some of the fundamental values of the American people in the guise of promoting "Liberty," the most fundamental value of the American people. It was set up by Socialists, operating in the Fabian manner, and it has never deviated from that purpose--although as a Fabian vehicle, it does sometimes, come down on the right side in a case involving individual rights as a way of covering its tracks and appealing to the gullible. (See Leftwing Word Games & Religious Freedom.)

William Flax

[ServesURight]

A bucket of horse feces.

This should have been posted under humor.

[Sangamon Kid]

"These phrases," right of the people peaceably to assemble," "right of the people to be secure in their homes," "enumeration's herein of certain rights shall not be construed to disparage others retained by the people," and "The powers not delegated herein are reserved to the states respectively, and to the people," all refer to individuals, but "the right of the people to keep and bear arms" refers to the state."

One of the better reasons taken from 40 Reasons to Support Gun Control, an toungue-in-cheek internet document that is occasionally posted here on FR

[Skooz]

the vast majority of constitutional experts agree ...

Whatcha' bet that the ACLU only considers someone a "constitutional expert" if he agrees with them.

[headsonpikes]

The Second Amendment has almost nothing to do with the individual state's rights to have militias, and almost everything to do with the right to bear arms expressed in the British Bill of Right in 1689, a right clearly seen to be founded in the necessity of citizens being able to resist, and defeat, a tyrant.

The ACLU is dissembling, and they know it.

What's wrong with them?!? Useful Idiots.

[KC_Conspirator]

What a bunch of crap! You have the ACLU arguing that the amendments in the Bill of Rights are individual rights, like unfettered free speech, yet they argue that the 2nd Amendment allows for strict regulation? This is not defending civil liberties, but a cheap attempt to shape the country into their vision of a socialist nation.

[Jay D. Dyson]

Let me see if I understand the ACLU here:

1. "The people" in the First Amendment means the people;
2. "The people" in the Fourth Amendment means the people;
3. "The people" in the Ninth Amendment means, the people;
4. ...but "the people" in the Second Amendment (ratified in 1791) means the federally-controlled National Guard (which was created by an Act of Congress in 1917).

My God, the ACLU is must think we are idiots.

-Jay

[RonF]

Actually, the point to keep in mind here is that the Second Amendment, as documented accurately here by the ACLU, means exactly what the Supreme Court says it does. Thus, the assertions given in here by the ACLU are correct in so far as they are consistent with SCOTUS decisions. You may believe that gun control laws are unconstitutional, but they will not be unconstitutional unless and until the Supreme Court rules them as such. And it so far has been quite consistent in ruling them as legal.

[BradyLS]

Why the ACLU is wrong and therefore dangerous: the Bill of RIGHTS applies to individuals, not to the states! Pretty soon, thay'll insist that the First Amendment will only apply to state-run media and state-endorsed propaganda.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I expected nothing better for the Anarchists/Communists in League with the Underworld.

The Second Amendment doesn't protect an individual's right to own a gun but the First Amendment protects a person's right to watch men sodomize each other? Which is more harm to the fabric of society?

[xkaydet65]

Interesting on how the ACLU advocates the doctrine of original intent for the 2nd. Amendment and not the others.