General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Justice Stevens Scolds NRA & Suggests: The five extra words that can fix the Second Amendment [View all]marble falls
(73,537 posts)very important to me. I was cognoscent of it especially as I waived them to come under the USCMJ. I swore to uphold and defend the Constitution even as my protections under it were abridged and waived albeit voluntarily.
I believe in gun ownership. But I also believe in rule of law and keeping order under the constraints of the Bill of Rights: equal access, no prior restraints, due process.
The Bill of Rights is an organic document. Parts of it are redefined every single year in Oct. I agree with the poster's point: the framers were not as specific as we like to think, and is not specific on the 2nd either. Justice Stevens five words make sense and would make the 2nd clearer. I don't think our right to own derives from the 2nd. I think it was an effort to keep the military from becoming a tool of any particular political force or a tool for government to go after any particular set of citizens.
We require the Federal government to maintain peace and to protect and administer the the people's will.
I was a believer of unlimited ownership of any sort of firearm. Events in the last 10 years or so have made my position evolve. While murder and murder with firearms have decreased steadily over the last thirty years, mass shootings and shooting of family members by people who have restraining orders and histories of violence have increased markedly. I don't think that the Framers had in mind that my right to own trumps the right of victims to the pursuit of life and happiness.
I also don't think you uninformed snark amounts to beans.