NEITHER SIDE HAS BEEN ON TARGET OVER GUN RIGHTS (Another call for the repeal of the 2nd Amendment)

The Columbus Dispatch | May 19, 2002

[GovernmentShrinker]

It's high time we launched a movement to amend the 2nd Amendment, removing the first half, which is not consistent with the recorded intent of those who drafted and ratified it, and which causes no end of trouble for those of us who care about this important Consitutional right.

The pesky preamble is what's known in legalese as "dicta", and like the side ramblings in court opinions, is distinct from the "holding", which is the actual statement of law. However, since the destruction of our educational system, such concepts are way over the heads of average citizens, and thus the language urgently needs to be simplified.

[RichT]

Sorry Boris, but you are incorrect. There are three (3) commas in the 2nd Amendment.

[RichT]

Hmmm... can you amend an amendment or would it require two seprate amendments? One to repeal the second and one to replace it with a new text?

[Billthedrill]

Grandma needs her guns as much as the next guy.

You're just not thinking this thing through. We let Granny keep her guns, how on earth are we gonna rob her?

[RichT]

I e-mailed Oldenquist last night and provided a few quotes from the founding fathers that might help him reconsider what the Founders felt about firearms. The idiot responded back and told me to read Article 1 Section 8 50 times. Obviously this legend in his own mind feels that us mere plebians can not understand something so complex as the Constitution.

[RichT]

BTW. Anybody wishing to contact Mr. Oldenquist can reach him at: oldenquist.1@osu.edu

[Eagle Eye]

Glad to know that this guy has got it right when everyone else has got it wrong.

[Eagle Eye]

One would think that people who believe that President Bush is so morally corrupt that he knew about the 9/11 attack and kept quiet so his friends could make money on the deal, would be the first to want to arm themselvs as protection against the this government.

During some of the confrontation with the gorons during the 2000 elctoin recounts, they would spout off about coups and dictatorships and stolen elections. I reminded them that we had the guns that they hated so much. Have you ever seen a group of people get a simultaneous "OH SH!T" look on their faces? Priceless, simply priceless.

[stayout]

"It says, '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.'"

No, it does not. The Second Amendment contains only a single comma.

--Boris

Ahem . . . um . . . actually, the Second Amendment contains three commas, not one comma.

Click here for a high resolution picture of the Bill of Rights.

[RichT]

Please note that in the photo provided that the 2nd Amendment was called: Article the fourth.

[stayout]

There's no way to squeeze out of the amendment a right to guns independent of militia needs. The amendment means that because a free state needs a militia, the right to guns can't be infringed.

In a famous essay, J. Neil Schulman ran the following sentence by Professor Roy Copperud, who wrote American Usage and Style: The Consensus and was on the usage panel for American Heritage Dictionary:

A well-schooled electorate, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and read Books, shall not be infringed.

Professor Copperud found no grammatical difference between the Second Amendment and that sentence. Under the anti-gun crowd's logic, only the members of a "well-schooled electorate" could own books, when the plain meaning is quite the opposite; namely, an unfettered right to own books is meant to foster a "well-schooled electorate."

[AAABEST]

What the Framers apparently meant is that citizens should bring their own guns when called up, relieving the government of supplying them..

Yeah OK, the reason for why the founders wrote the 2nd amendment was so that the governement could save money. Nice try dumbs**t.

[wardaddy]

Damn right...my grandma used her's in her 70s. My mom has her's as well.

[RichT]

A little something that I e-mailed to Oldenquist: Grammatical Analysis of the 2nd Amendment

[J Jay]

Well, The Second Amendment was written in the English language with the words, sentence structure, and punctuation arranged in a precise manner.

What does this arrangement really mean???

Take a look at The Unabridged Second Amendment at the link.

(The Unabridged Second)

[boris]

"Ahem . . . um . . . actually, the Second Amendment contains three commas, not one comma."

You are simply wrong, as you would know if you were not too lazy to do a little research:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

--Boris

[boris]

See my response above.

[RichT]

The 2nd Amendment has 3 commas.

[RichT]

BTW... John Bloodgood is responsible for the text provided in your "Link 3".

[dead]

I don't know what I was thinking.