The Second Amendment is only one single sentence containing a mere 27 words: “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.”
A single sentence not broken up even by a semi-colon. Just a statement with a modifying dependent clause explaining its purpose: a militia — described by Alexander Hamilton in Federalist #29 as a collective right of each state as balance to federal power — for protection of “the SECURITY of a free State.”
This is how it was written, and this is how it was understood and interpreted for almost two hundred years until corrupt Supreme Court justices bought by the gun lobby interpreted in a way that is a bizarre, grotesque distortion of its original form because PEOPLE NO LONGER FEEL SECURE and it is because of, not protected by, the omnipresence of massive battlefield weapons of war that the Founders could never imagine..
Children are no longer SECURE in their schools. Worshippers are no longer SECURE in their synagogues, churches, temples or mosques. LGBTQ+ folks are no longer SECURE in their safe places — their bars and nightclubs. Those attending concerts or movies are no longer SECURE in their places of entertainment.
The interpretation by today’s Supreme Court flies in the face of what the Amendment was intended and how it was written.
In the case of Schenck v United States (249 U.S. 47 (1919)), Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote of the First Amendment, WHICH (unlike the Second) INCLUDES NO DIRECT LIMITATIONS AT ALL, “The Constitution is not a suicide pact” and, in fact, even though the text of the First Amendment is completely unrestricted, is understood to allow limitations on speech against defamation, false advertising, perjury, incitement to violence, incitement to insurrection or other crimes, or yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater.
The Second Amendment is only one single sentence containing a mere 27 words: “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.”
A single sentence not broken up even by a semi-colon. Just a statement with a modifying dependent clause explaining its purpose: a militia — described by Alexander Hamilton in Federalist #29 as a collective right of each state as balance to federal power — for protection of “the SECURITY of a free State.”
This is how it was written, and this is how it was understood and interpreted for almost two hundred years until corrupt Supreme Court justices bought by the gun lobby interpreted in a way that is a bizarre, grotesque distortion of its original form because PEOPLE NO LONGER FEEL SECURE and it is because of, not protected by, the omnipresence of massive battlefield weapons of war that the Founders could never imagine..
Children are no longer SECURE in their schools. Worshippers are no longer SECURE in their synagogues, churches, temples or mosques. LGBTQ+ folks are no longer SECURE in their safe places — their bars and nightclubs. Those attending concerts or movies are no longer SECURE in their places of entertainment.
The interpretation by today’s Supreme Court flies in the face of what the Amendment was intended and how it was written.
In the case of Schenck v United States (249 U.S. 47 (1919)), Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote of the First Amendment, WHICH (unlike the Second) INCLUDES NO DIRECT LIMITATIONS AT ALL, “The Constitution is not a suicide pact” and, in fact, even though the text of the First Amendment is completely unrestricted, is understood to allow limitations on speech against defamation, false advertising, perjury, incitement to violence, incitement to insurrection or other crimes, or yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater.