Letters to the Editor

• Case Citation 1

  [Read the article: Repeal the Second Amendment]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  Xanthro, Xanthro, Xanthro. Let's start by noting that even though you acknowledged my request for the name of even one of the "many" cases you claim support your version of the 2A, you STILL cannot name one damn case. Of course, that is no surprise at all.

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  Your level of childish behavior continues to rise and quite frankly, it reflects poorly on you. Here are a number of cases for you, reflecting the history of jurisprudence in this matter.

  PEOPLE v. BROWN. Supreme Court of Michigan. Feb. 27, 1931.

  “But in this state the militia, although legally existent and composed of all able-bodied male citizens of Michigan and those of foreign birth who have declared their intention to become citizens, Comp. Laws 1929,

  section 629, is practically extinct and has been superseded by the National Guard and reserve organizations. If called to service, the arms are furnished by the state. Comp. Laws 1929, section 633.In times of peace, the militia, as such, is unarmed and the historical test would render the constitutional provision lifeless.

  The protection of the Constitution is not limited to

  militiamen nor military purposes, in terms, but extends to "every person" to bear arms for the "defense of himself" as well as of the state.

  Nunn vs. The State of Georgia 1846

  But admitting all this, does it follow that because the people refused to delegate to the general government the power to take from them the right to keep and bear arms, that they designed to rest it in the State governments? Is this a right reserved to the States or to themselves? Is it not an inalienable right, which lies at the bottom of every free government? We do not believe that, because the people withheld this arbitrary power of disfranchisement from Congress, they ever intended to confer it on the local legislatures. This right is too dear to be confided to a republican legislature.

  "The right of the people to bear arms shall not be infringed;" The right of the whole people, old and young, men, women and boys, and not militia only, to keep and hear arms of every description, not merely as are used by the militia, shall not be infringed, curtailed, or broken in upon, in the smallest degree; and all this for the important end to be attained: the rearing up and qualifying a well-regulated militia, so vitally necessary to the security of a free State. Our opinion is, that any law, State or Federal, is repugnant to the Constitution, and void, which contravenes this right, originally belonging to our forefathers, trampled under foot by Charles I. and his two wicked sons and successors, reestablished by the revolution of 1688, conveyed to this land of liberty by the colonists, and finally incorporated conspicuously in our own Magna Charta!

  Presser v. People of Illinois (1886)

  It is undoubtedly true that all citizens capable of bearing arms constitute the reserved military force or reserve militia of the United States as well as of the States; and, in view of this prerogative of the General Government, as well as of its general powers, the States cannot, even laying the constitutional provision in question [the Second Amendment] out of view prohibit the people from keeping and bearing arms, so as to deprive the United States of their rightful resource for maintaining the public security, and disable the people from performing their duty to the General Government.

  Since, no doubt, you’ll want a more recent case as well.

  UNITED STATES v. VERDUGO-URQUIDEZ 1990

  The Preamble declares that the Constitution is ordained and

  established by "the People of the United States." The Second

  Amendment protects "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms," and the Ninth and Tenth Amendments provide that certain rights and powers are retained by and reserved to "the people." See also U. S. Const., Amdt. 1 ("Congress shall make no law ... abridging ... the right of the people peaceably to assemble") (emphasis added); Art.

  I, section 2, cl. I ("The House of Representatives shall be

  composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States") (emphasis added). While this textual exegesis is by no means conclusive, it suggests that "the people" protected by the Fourth Amendment, and by the First and Second Amendments, and to whom rights and powers are reserved in the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, refers to a class of persons who are part of a national community or who have otherwise developed sufficient connection with this country to be considered part of that community.

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  cont...

  Permalink Saturday, April 21, 2007 06:01 PM