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To: muawiyah

So let's be clear.

Do you think there is a personal right to possess nuclear weapons guaranteed by the US Constitution's 2nd Amendment, yes or no?


186 posted on 03/27/2007 4:08:16 PM PDT by Vicomte13 (Le chien aboie; la caravane passe.)
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To: Vicomte13
The second-amendment says, in an idiomatic expression, that I have a personal right to self-defense.

That is, as it was understood when Napoleon gave the privilege to Jews, the "right to keep and bear arms" meant that you were a real man, with rights, who was entitled to fight back and with whatever weapons were required.

There are doctrines of proportionality in our laws that are based on the idea that the right to self-defense should be limited to that which really is necessary for self-defense.

I think what you are working with is a confounding of the two ideas ~ the "right to keep" and the "right to bear" ~ the first applying to the "arms" themselves, and the second to the "use of arms".

The Constitution is also not terribly open ended when it comes to the federal government, but is quite effusive regarding the rights of the people ~ both as a group and as individuals.

I suppose the "people assembled" might well give rise to the idea that the federales can have nukes, but the limitation on Congressional access to the big guns held in private hands by mariners (in the time of the Founders) suggests that Congress can, at best, rent nukes as needed.

195 posted on 03/27/2007 4:20:36 PM PDT by muawiyah
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