Illuminating
By lex, on June 28th, 2010
The Supreme Court has re-emphasized, for those not paying attention, that the 2nd Amendment means precisely what it seems to mean *: “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.”
Much ink has been spilled over the years about the relevance of the prefatory statement versus the operative clause, but properly read *– the way the Framers intended – the explanation of why the the people had the right to “keep and bear arms” does not touch on the factual existence of that right. I may have stepped inside because it was raining, but that does not change the fact that I am not outside.
SCOTUS’ decision today was a 5-4 split along “ideological” lines, or between the five member conservative majority and the four member liberal minority. Illustrated here then is the distinction between judicial restraint and judicial activism. The conservative majority read the Second Amendment as it was written and intended. The liberal minority on the other hand, would much prefer that the people did not have the right to keep and bear arms, and are willing to go against the explicit will of the Framers – outside the Constitution’s internal revision process – to elevate their personal preference, no matter how sincerely arrived upon, above our Republic’s capstone document.
False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm those only 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. – Cesare Beccaria
* 10-06-2018 Link Gone; no replacements found – Ed.