"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
Anyone have a problem understanding this in stand alone mode?
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state,"
Anyone care to explain what this means as a stand alone statement?
2nd Amendment re-written for clarity by yours truly:
The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed due to a well regulated militia* being necessary to the security of a free state.**
*The contemporary definitions of "militia" generally describe them as comprising all able bodied men
therefore by definition the 2nd Amendment is an individual right.
**I re-wrote this changing the actual wording as little as possible to stay within what I believe was the original intent. Hopefully it's clearer now that I've taken the first part out of the subordinate clause category.
Here are Thomas Jefferson's thoughts on this subject:
Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia:
"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms. . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
BTW Rabbit:
We're still waiting for you to explain which of the other amendments in the Bill of Rights aren't individual rights. Free Speech? Unreasonable Search and Seizure? Self Incrimination?
Last edited by italiansxs; 05/01/12 05:54 PM.
