Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: How is Meatloaf's 'Id Do Anything for Love' like the 2nd Amendment? [View all]jimmy the one
(2,717 posts)goodall: The Second Amendment to the Constitution does not give any rights. The Second Amendment is a restriction on the Federal Government from interfering with a citizen's right to be armed. The right to keep and bear arms precedes the formation of the Government, and therefore cannot be given by the Government.
The bill of rights was both a restriction on congress & a guarantee of individual rights (in 2nA case, the right to belong to a well regulated militia, right as a duty):
Wm Rawle, 1829, A view of the constitution, all caps in link, not my emphasis: CHAPTER X. OF THE RESTRICTIONS ON THE POWERS OF CONGRESS AND ON THE EXECUTIVE AND JUDICIAL AUTHORITIES RESTRICTIONS ON THE POWERS OF STATES AND SECURITY TO THE RIGHTS OF INDIVIDUALS
Of the amendments already adopted, the eight first in order fall within the class of restrictions on the legislative power, some of which would have been implied, some are original, and all are highly valuable. Some are also to be considered as restrictions on the judicial power.
The constitutions of some of the states contain bills of rights; others do not. A declaration of rights, therefore, properly finds a place in the general Constitution, where it equalizes all and binds all. http://www.constitution.org/wr/rawle_10.htm
encyclopedia britannica: Bill of Rights, in the United States, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which were adopted as a single unit on Dec 15, 1791, and which constitute a collection of mutually reinforcing guarantees of individual rights and of limitations on federal and state governments. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/503541/Bill-of-Rights
wiki: The Bill of Rights is the collective name for the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed to assuage the fears of Anti-Federalists who had opposed Constitutional ratification, these amendments guarantee a number of personal freedoms, limit the government's power in judicial and other proceedings, and reserve some powers to the states and the public. http://www.democraticunderground.com/1172167980
Goodall: (As for the first part, it is a dependent clause to the statement and only serves as an example to support the statement).
If you are referring, as 'the first part', to the militia clause 'a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state,', as being a 'dependent clause, I rather believe Wm Rawle in 1825 from his A View of the Constitution, than someone immersed in 2nd Amendment Mythology:
In the second article, it is declared, that a well regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state; a proposition from which few will dissent.
The corollary, from the first position, is, that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/print_documents/amendIIs9.html
Wm Rawle calls the individual rkba clause a COROLLARY to the well regulated militia PROPOSITION, and a corollary is what is DEPENDENT upon a higher order of law or rule.