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Debate is Over Concerning This Part of the Second Amendment?
townhall.com ^ | 2/28/2020 | Matt Vespa

Posted on 02/28/2020 6:36:52 PM PST by rktman

The Left has long lost this debate, but they keep trying to relitigate it on the campaign stump. The Second Amendment grants the individual right to keep and bear arms. That was the landmark D.C. vs. Heller decision, though it applied only to federal enclaves. The McDonald v. Chicago decision extended this right to the states proper. But the Left is obsessed with the militia portion of the amendment: “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 Atlantic has a good piece about this whole debate, including an analysis of the opinions from the late Justices Antonin Scalia and John Paul Stevens on Heller. The publication explained that they used two databases Corpus of the Founding Era American English (COFEA) which has 140 million words from documents between 1760-1799 and Corpus of Early Modern English, a massive text bank based on one-billion words British English from 1475 and 1800, to analyze their opinions. To no one’s surprise, Scalia’s majority opinion was more grounded in historical fact than Stevens, though both had inaccuracies. Still, even in the afterlife, Scalia is still right for the most part (via The Atlantic):

(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2a; banglist; kaba
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1. Debate about what?

2. See number 1.

The "right" is supposed to be protected from 'infringements' in any manner. Not hard. Of course I didn't attend Hahvahd or Yuhale.

1 posted on 02/28/2020 6:36:52 PM PST by rktman
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To: rktman

A militia is a civilian army. There can be no “well-regulated militias” if civilians can’t bear arms.


2 posted on 02/28/2020 6:42:49 PM PST by Telepathic Intruder
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To: rktman
In states like New York,Massachusetts,Kalifornia and now even Virginia you basically have to know a politician to be allowed to have a firearm.When is SCOTUS gonna make clear that “shall not be infringed” applies not only to Federal officials but to state,county and municipal officials as well?
3 posted on 02/28/2020 6:47:40 PM PST by Gay State Conservative (The Rats Can't Get Over The Fact That They Lost A Rigged Election)
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To: Telepathic Intruder

militia is ie armed “WE THE PEOPLE”.


4 posted on 02/28/2020 6:50:33 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: rktman

I have always marveled at the notion that the 2nd amendment, part of the Bill of Rights, would be the only one that guarantees a right of the government (militia armaments).


5 posted on 02/28/2020 6:50:36 PM PST by cartoonistx ( the feeling of fainting!)
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To: rktman

What the Left fails to realize is that “militia” is not the organized forces of the state but the armed civilians. The purpose of the Second Amendment is to guarantee the right of the civilians to keep and bear arms against the tyranny of the armed forces of the state. Do we really have to remind anyone of the actions of the armed civilians against the King’s troops at Concord and Lexington?


6 posted on 02/28/2020 6:53:32 PM PST by Petrosius
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To: rktman

From Stephen Gutkowski in the article: It’s almost as though the Second Amendment protects people’s rights to have and use guns in part because the founders believed a well-armed populace could form into a military force capable of protecting a free society

This has been my understanding since being a small school boy...How can an ordinary raggamuffin citizen have this understanding, but the leading minds of the left can’t come to the same conclusion...


7 posted on 02/28/2020 6:53:51 PM PST by abigkahuna (How can you be at two places at once when you are nowhere at all?)
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To: cartoonistx

excellent !


8 posted on 02/28/2020 6:53:58 PM PST by rolling_stone (tshf)
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To: Gay State Conservative

Not holding my breath.


9 posted on 02/28/2020 6:56:23 PM PST by rktman ( #My2ndAmend! ----- Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?)
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To: rktman

The Second Amendment grants the individual right to keep and bear arms.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WRONG!

It recognizes a right that pre-existed the Constitution.


10 posted on 02/28/2020 6:57:29 PM PST by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizens Are Born Here of Citizen Parents_Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: rktman
The Second Amendment grants the individual right to keep and bear arms.


11 posted on 02/28/2020 6:58:39 PM PST by wastedyears (The left would kill every single one of us and our families if they knew they could get away with it)
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To: Lurkinanloomin

Did I accidentally say that? I know better. The government is supposed to guarantee that NO ONE infringes on my rights in this case. Rights are NOT granted.


12 posted on 02/28/2020 6:59:51 PM PST by rktman ( #My2ndAmend! ----- Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?)
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To: wastedyears

Give matt vespa a call then. I know better.


13 posted on 02/28/2020 7:01:03 PM PST by rktman ( #My2ndAmend! ----- Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?)
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To: wastedyears

You are correct, sir!

It states the existence of the right as an established fact, and forbids ALL (I say again ALL, not just governmental) infringements!

The signage on my local mall prohibiting firearms is an unconstitutional infringement.


14 posted on 02/28/2020 7:02:28 PM PST by ExGeeEye (For dark is the suede that mows like a harvest.)
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To: rktman

Bump


15 posted on 02/28/2020 7:20:33 PM PST by foreverfree
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To: ExGeeEye
§ 1890. The importance of this article will scarcely be doubted by any persons, who have duly reflected upon the subject. The militia is the natural defence of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpations of power by rulers. It is against sound policy for a free people to keep up large military establishments and standing armies in time of peace, both from the enormous expenses, with which they are attended, and the facile means, which they afford to ambitious and unprincipled rulers, to subvert the government, or trample upon the rights of the people.

-Supreme Court Justice, Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution

16 posted on 02/28/2020 7:20:40 PM PST by lizma2
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To: rktman

I know that you know better, but obviously Matt Vespa does not.


17 posted on 02/28/2020 7:28:17 PM PST by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizens Are Born Here of Citizen Parents_Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: Gay State Conservative

When Trump gets to replace even one of the Gang of Four....which is what has Leftists so worried.


18 posted on 02/28/2020 7:32:17 PM PST by FLT-bird
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To: rktman
The Second Amendment grants the individual right to keep and bear arms.

Sorry Matt. Your ignorance is showing.

2A does NOT "grant" us any right. It tells the government that it cannot abridge our natural, God given right to self protection and bearing arms.

It really, really pisses me off when people who ought to know better claim we derive our right to arms and self protection from a document. A document whose purpose is to put the government on notice that it cannot restrict a natural right of man. Saying that implies that were the document changed (repealed) we would no longer possess that right. Absolutely not!

19 posted on 02/28/2020 7:54:29 PM PST by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s........you weren't really there)
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To: Gay State Conservative
They already did in McDonald which incorporated the 2nd Amendment. The problem is they refuse to clarify the different interpretations in applying that incorporation. By taking in new cases they wade into the legal thickets of reasonable vs allowable restrictions, strict vs. ordinary review, public necessity vs emergency. They haven’t hesitated as much in 1st and 4th Amendment cases. It is a hot potato that they do want to touch, i.e. they are cowards.

No different than all Dems and Repubs in Congress that could freely legislate because of the incorporation. But then you also have Trump promoting more gun control than Obama with his illegal bump stop ban and support for red-flag laws with the NRA hiding these facts.

Because we have only cowards at the national level, incorporation advances has to come at the state level. There gun rights wins some (i.e. states with Constitutional Carry) and lose alot ( i.e. the Virginias, New Yorks and Californias, etc.).

As a result millions of gun owners have their rights infringed and there is nothing being done. This will continue with only civil disobedience an option. Gun owners avoid open disobedience as they do not want the risk of felony convictions.

You really don’t have a right if you allow it to be infringed.

20 posted on 02/28/2020 8:19:53 PM PST by Badboo (Why it is important)
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