What do you think of this critique? Lastlib, here at DU, started this conversation several months ago:
Have you noticed a tendency to ignore or outright delete the 3rd comma in the original text of the 2nd Amendment?
The original text of the 2nd 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."
Though many people have little idea of the mechanics of the logic of independent and subordinate clauses, which is applied by means of commas, the founding fathers were educated men with pretty conservative attitudes towards the grammar and mechanics of English composition, so there's a huge difference in the logic of the 2nd amendment with the 3rd comma that they used, compared to without it.
The 3rd comma makes "the right of the people to keep and bear arms" a SUBORDINATE clause, NOT part of the main clause.
Without the 3rd comma, which apparently is a frequent "mistake" (or people just talk about the amendment as though there is no 3rd comma in it) the main clause seems to be "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed" and the other two phrases are modifiers of that sentence.
With the 3rd comma the main clause is, "A well regulated militia, , , shall not be infringed", establishing a REGULATED defense, with 2 subordinate clauses that modify that something like this:
"Militia" in "A well regulated Militia shall not be infringed" is modified by a verbal/participle functioning as an adjective making it a "Militia" "being necessary to the security of a free State".
- and -
"the right of the people to keep and bear Arms" is another verbal, an infinitive in this case, functioning as an appositive noun, which re-states and adds information about the form of the regulated militia as a collective right of the people. That makes it the collective right of the people to a well regulated militia.
Please watch your emails and other places people quote or talk about the 2nd Amendment and see if this is true.
= new reply since forum marked as read