Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: Virginia Tech anniversary creates difficult moment on gun control for lawmakers [View all]Atypical Liberal
(5,412 posts)What I actually wrote was:
"For all practical and legal purposes, you need to face the reality that the preambulatory phrase of the second amendment does not exist."
And that is a true statement.
For all practical and legal purposes, the preambulatory phrase of the second amendment does not exist.
The militia spoken of in that phrase no longer exists, and all nine Supreme Court justices and the President have said it doesn't matter anyway.
This is a much more complex historical question than you care to hazard and I do not have the time to engage in it at length. Toodles.
I understand completely why you are afraid to answer the question.
And it doesn't take long to address at all.
The founders continued the decentralized militia system because the purpose of the militias was to be able to eliminate or counter federal military power, because standing armies were considered "dangerous to liberty", because they would give the central government the ability to use force to oppress the people.
A centralized militia system would be counter to this idea.
Once you recognize this central truth about the function the militias were to serve, then you can understand why once those militias ceased to exist, the only reasonable default condition for the second amendment is for that ability to fall to the people.
Which, of course, is precisely why the second amendment is worded the way it is, reserving the right to the people, and not to the states or the militias spoken of in the preamble.