Via THR, Dennis Henigan of the Group Formerly Known as Handgun Control on the Parker v. D.C. decision:
The Second Amendment is the only provision in our Bill of Rights that actually states its own purpose. It says a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. And the Court has held, the Supreme Court has held, that that statement of purpose must be taken seriously and the right must be evaluated and interpreted in light of that purpose. And by ignoring that purpose the D.C. Circuit not only contradicted the Supreme Court but also years of precedent which establishes that it is not legitimate for courts to edit the Constitution. The courts must interpret the Constitution as it was written by the framers. That is what the D.C. Circuit did not do.
It would seem Mr. Henigan conveniently left out a critical part of the Second Amendment -- although, even if he had included it, of course, he'd have gone back to the militia as being what the 2A protects. Of course, going back to what the Founding Fathers believed, that's absolute lunacy, which Mac Johnson at Human Events summed up very nicely:
Henderson's second insight was that despite the right belonging to "the people" in the amendment, it actually belonged only to the militia as an organized military force. To believe this, you have to believe that the United States is the only nation on Earth that felt a need to guarantee its government, in writing, the right to have an army -- which is possible, I suppose, if Jefferson foresaw the attitude of the modern Democrat party towards the military.
And, of course, anyone who knows anything about what the Founding Fathers believed knows damn good and well that almost to a man, they absolutely despised the idea of a standing army. Which by process of elimination leaves only the people -- individuals -- you, me, and every other individual -- that have the right to keep and bear arms. Why anyone with even a shred of critical thinking skills left ascribes any kind of benevolent motive, or gives any kind of legitimacy, to Henigan and his band of nanny-staters is completely beyond me. Some time ago, Kevin Baker came across this anonymous quote:
Simply put, gun control cannot survive without an accompanying sea of disinformation.And it just hasn't been said any better than that. If the people at large were nearly as informed and educated as they should be, gun control in this country would be six feet under.
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