guns & purses (was Re: guns & crime)

[JKSCHW at aol.com]

Yeah. I follow those burly miscreants, the S.Ct. The opinion clearly confined 
the constitutional right to bear arms to "the militias the stateswere 
expected to maintain and train." 307 US at 178. There is some further 
discussionof the original meaning, which is intended to illuminate the text, 
but even in a McReynolds opinion, the New Deal Court wasn't originalist. The 
militias the states maintain and train ina  modern context are the National 
Guard. There is not a federal court outside of certain judges in Texas who 
will say different. --jks

In a message dated Wed, 18 Oct 2000  2:24:13 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Matt 
Cramer <cramer at unix01.voicenet.com> writes:

<< On Wed, 18 Oct 2000 JKSCHW at aol.com wrote:


> These are different arguments than the absurd notion that private gun 
> ownership keeps tyranny in check. I don't think they hold water, but they 
are 
> not stupid, unlike that argument. And from a legal professional's point of 
> view, the 2d A doesn't guarantee a private citizen's right to bear arms 
> outside the context of the National Guard. --jks

Unless, of course, you are one of those pesky legal professionals who
happen to follow the decisions of those wild and burly miscreants, the
Supreme Court of the United States:

The signification attributed to the term Militia appears from the debates
in the Convention, the history and legislation of Colonies and States, and
the writings of approved commentators. These show plainly enough that the
Militia comprised all males physically capable of acting in concert for
the common defense. 'A body of citizens enrolled for military discipline.'
And further, that ordinarily when called for service these men were
expected to appear bearing arms supplied by themselves and of the kind in
common use at the time. 

  -United States vs. Miller (1939)

It is not as simple as your hand-waving might imply.

If you want to talk of things "stupid", then what is stupid is this
strange hypothesis that "the people" means something completely different
for that one, single, ammendment.  Or do you propose a limit on
free-speech to one weekend a month, and only in a "speech camp"?

Matt

--
Matt Cramer <cramer at voicenet.com>
http://www.voicenet.com/~cramer/
The true method of knowledge is experiment.

     -William Blake

 >>