Or was just unwilling to look it up.
In The Kill Room, the author asserts "The brief Second Amendment of the Constitution guaranteed the right of militias to keep and bear arms. It didn't specifically say that all citizens had that right."
The second sentence is true, but not the first.
This is the text.
"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."
It guarantees a right of the people.
Judging from the books, Deaver's politics generally seem liberal, and that blatantly silly view of the amendment was once widely supported by liberals.
Maybe still is.
The book contains an equally silly argument between Detective Amelia Sachs and a weapons manufacturer named Walker about gun licensing.
It is in that context that the amendment is so mischaracterized.
Amelia ignores that nobody has a specifically guaranteed right in the Constitution to fly a plane or drive a car to argue from those to the constitutionality of licensing gun owners.
Walker overlooks that point - one might claim it makes no difference - but objects to licensing that it would enable Washington to come in the night and take our guns.
Amelia replies that Washington has nukes, so if it wants to take our guns it will do so despite resistance hypothetically made more effective by the absence of licensing or registration.
That is a shockingly stupid thing to say.
But Walker seems to concede.
No comments:
Post a Comment