Posted on 04/04/2013 10:31:15 AM PDT by neverdem
The answers are far from simple, and lie in American constitutional and military history.
A key narrative in the push to ban assault weapons is that they are exceptionally powerful, firing rounds with a special capacity to pierce body armor and pulverize human bodies. The AR-15 infamously used in the Sandy Hook massacre fires the same 5.56x45mm NATO ammunition as its cousin the M16. The NATO designation seems to validate Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and companys fear that these are military weapons which do not belong in the hands of civilians. The language of the Second Amendment and historical context in which it was conceived fundamentally undermine this logic:
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.
The Bill of Rights was adopted as a precaution against tyrannical government, with the Second Amendment democratizing military force. The Framers believed that citizens should have access to the military hardware they themselves would use to defend the homeland against tyranny, foreign or domestic, as members of militias. Whether this standard applies to artillery (reasonable persons may differ), it surely includes firearms. If anything, an originalist interpretation of the Constitution privileges the right to keep and bear arms suitable for militia service.
Progressives counter that the homeland has long been protected by a standing army. In their view, the right to keep and bear arms was confirmed strictly in the interest of military preparedness. No less than the Father of the Constitution expressly warned against a standing army. James Madison spent many months before the Constitutional Convention studying the history of governments. As he said to that body:
A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions...
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Doesn’t matter if they are. Which, they aren’t.
My Right either way.
I don't have a clue what you are talking about. A M14 fires a .308Win cartridge fully automatically with a detachable magazine.
Up until urban anarchists ruined things and opened the door for big government Democrats to control weapons - everything was available to Americans.
Now our government doesn’t protect our liberty, but us. And to do that you need to suppress liberty. Liberty is dangerous.
I just read this Heller quote from Scalia, “the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons..
When did that “tradition” start, 1930?
This guy’s supposed to be a conservative and a scholar. How dumb do our masters think we are?
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