NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #26/NN_1992_26.iso/spool/sci/crypt/4512

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-09 | 9.4 KB

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From: [e-mail] (Perry E. Metzger)
Subject: Re: Registered Keys - why the need?
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Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 18:46:27 GMT
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Please take this out of sci.crypt -- it really doesn't belong here.

[e-mail] (David Sternlight) writes:
>
>Michael T. Palmer argues that owning guns is a right guaranteed by the
>Constitution which the State has no right to intervene in.
>
>He is mistaken, and the argument itself is a tired piece of NRA propaganda.
>A careful reading of the Constitution, as well as the interpretation of
>many Constitutional scholars and the courts is that the relevant provision
>is a Militia clause, not an individual gun clause. NRA types always
>omit the Militia part of the language of the Constitution, and quote
>the second part "the right to keep and bear arms" completely out of
>context, often concealing their shoddy rhetoric by capitalizing the
>leading "the" in the phrase to conceal that lead-in material has
>been suppressed.

No one ignores the militia part of the clause. The problem is that
you, as with most anti-gunners, don't seem to understand why that part
of the clause is there.

Lets start with some quotations -- a lot of quotations. I'll start my
commentary after them.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
"The conclusion is thus inescapable that the history, concept,
and wording of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States, as well as its interpretation by every major
commentator and court in the first half-century after its ratifi-
cation, indicates that what is protected is an individual right
of a private citizen to own and carry firearms in a peaceful manner."
  - Report of the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the
    Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate,
    97th Congress, Second Session ( February 1982 )

"Americans have a right and advantage of being armed -- unlike
the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid
to trust the people with arms."
    - James Madison, The Federalist Papers No. 46 at 243-244.

"The Militia comprised all males physically capable of acting
in concert for the common defense ....  And ... these men were
expected to appear bearing arms supplied by themselves and of
the kind in common use at the time."
    - Supreme Court of the United States,  U.S. v. Miller (1939).

"The states cannot, even laying the Constitutional provision
out of view, prohibit the people from keeping and bearing arms
so as to deprive the United States of their rightful resource
for maintaining public security, and disable the people from
performing their duty to general government."
    - Supreme Court of the U.S., Presser v. Illinois (1886).

"... 'the people' seems to have been a term of art employed in
select parts of the Constitution.  The Preamble declares that the
Constitution is ordained, and established by 'the people of the
the U.S.'  The Second Amendment protects the right of the people
to keep and bear Arms ...."
    - Supreme Court of the U.S.,  U.S. v. Uerdugo-Uriquidez (1990).

"The right of the people to keep and bear ... arms shall not be
infringed.  A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the
people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of
a free country ...."
    - James Madison, I Annuals of Congress 434 (June 8, 1789).

"To disarm the people - that was the best and most effective way
to enslave them ...."
  - George Mason ( Framer of the Declaration of Rights, Virginia,
    1776, which became the basis for the U.S. Bill of Rights )
    3 Elliot, Debate at 380.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.  The strongest reason
for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last
resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
  - Thomas Jefferson, Proposal Virginia Constitution, June 1776
    1 Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 (C. J. Boyd, Ed., 1950).

"And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not
warned from time to time that this people preserve the spirit of
resistance ?  Let them take arms ... The tree of liberty must be
refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
  - Thomas Jefferson (letter to William S. Smith, 1787, in
    Jefferson, On Democracy 20, S. Padover, ed., 1939).

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed;
as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe.  The supreme
power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword;
because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute
a force superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on
any pretense, raised in the United States."
  - Noah Webster, "An Examination into the Leading Principles
    of the Federal Constitution" (1787), in Pamphlets on the
    Constitution of the United States (P. Ford, 1888).

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of
people always possess arms, and be taught alike especially when
young, how to use them."
  - Richard Henry Lee, 1788, Initiator of the Declaration of
    Independence, and member of the first Senate, which passed
    the Bill of Rights.

"The great object is that every man be armed" and "everyone who
is able may have a gun."
  - Patrick Henry, in the Virginia Convention on the ratification
    of the U.S. Constitution.

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is
that they be properly armed."
    - Alexander Hamilton

"That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize
Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights
of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States who
are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms ...."
    - Samuel Adams, "Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer", August 20, 1789

"No Freeman shall be debarred the use of arms in his own lands or tenements."
    - Thomas Jefferson, from the Virginia Constitution, Third Draft


----------------------------------------------------------------------


Having gone through the laundry list, lets have a quick examination of
the orignal text, shall we?

"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."
  - The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution,
    proposed Sept. 25, 1789; ratified Dec. 15, 1791.

Now, what does that say? The militia, at the time of the ratification
of the second amendment, and TO THIS DAY, meant, essentially, anyone
with a gun. The term "the people" is a term of art in the constitution
used to refer to an individual right -- the supreme court has made
this clear, and has explicitly stated this.

To expand, what the second amendment means is this...

Standing armies in countries with a disarmed people are a bad thing
that promotes tyranny, and thus such a situation is a threat to the
security of the nation. Therefore, the people of the United States
shall be permitted to own arms freely.

The first part is commentary. J. Neil Schulman once wrote the sentence
"The ability of people to read being needed for an educated populace,
the right to own and read books shall not be infringed" and asked
people what it meant -- did it mean that the government alone could
own books? Most people get this one right immediately. Unfortunately,
some people like to twist the constitution because it doesn't say what
they would like it to say. Well, its fine for you to dislike the
second amendment, but its another matter to claim it doesn't say what
it says. If you go back to the original sources, you will find quote
after quote after quote where virtually all of the founding fathers
agreeing with my position and disagreeing with yours. I don't think
you can find, in all the ratification debates and other source
material, a single place where people take your interpretation and
disagree with mine.

If you really dislike the second amendment, try to have it repealed.
Don't pretend it doesn't exist. Have some intellectual honesty.

And now, for my final quotation.

"We're going to have to take one step at a time, and the first step
is necessarily -- given the political realities -- going to be very
modest ... So then we'll have to start working again to strengthen
the law, and then again to strengthen the next law, and maybe again
and again.  Right now, though, we'd be satisfied not with half a loaf
but with a slice.  Our ultimate goal -- total control of handguns in
the United States -- is going to take time ....  The first problem is
to slow down the increasing number of guns being produced and sold in
this country.  The second problem is to get handguns registered.  And
the final problem is to make the possession of *all* handguns and
*all* handgun ammunition -- except for the military, policemen,
licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs, and licensed gun
collectors -- totally illegal."
    - Pete Shields, Chairman Emeritus, Handgun Control, Inc.
    ( "The New Yorker", July 26, 1976 )

--
Perry Metzger        [e-mail]
--
"They can have my RSA key when they pry it from my cold dead fingers."
Libertarian Party info: Phone [phone], E-Mail [e-mail]