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« on: May 02, 2018, 05:45:47 PM » |
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The Patriot Post - Alexander's Column 5-2-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Patriot Post® · The Deconstruction and Repeal of the Second Amendment
By Mark Alexander · May 2, 2018 · https://patriotpost.us/alexander/55717-the-deconstruction-and-repeal-of-the-second-amendment
“I ask, Who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people…” —George Mason (1788.)
“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.” —Article Two, Bill of Rights
Article Two1 (the Second Amendment) was written as a proscription against government intrusion upon and usurpation of the Natural Rights of Man, because “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms” is the most formidable line of defense against government intrusion on those rights.
Indeed, this inherent right is the first civil right2 — the fundamental guarantor of all others — as affirmed by our Founders3.
In fact, the first shots of the eight-year struggle for American independence, fired at Lexington and Concord4, were in response to the British government’s attempt to disarm “the People.”
It was understood then, as now, that the inherent right to self-defense was irrevocable — and not to be infringed. It was and remains the most fundamental of the unalienable Rights of Man5 — the rights of all people.
After the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, during the 1788 Massachusetts Convention debates for ratification of the U.S. Constitution, Samuel Adams proclaimed, “The said Constitution shall never be construed … to prevent the People of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.” Other states provided similar assurances in their constitutions, based on common law.
Once our Constitution was ratified, the debate over the addition of a “Bill of Rights6,” including the Second Amendment right to self-defense, was hotly contested. Many of our Founders argued that the mere reiteration of these innate and unalienable Rights of Mankind within the Constitution might imply that they are somehow subject to amendment, as if granted to the people by the state7 rather than inherent as “endowed by their Creator.”
Typical of those objections was this from Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 84: “Bills of rights, in the sense and in the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers which are not granted; and on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?”
In his first Bill of Rights draft, James Madison proposed what would become the Second Amendment. This was a concession to the Anti-Federalists, who insisted upon the enumeration of these specific Liberties in the Constitution, much to the objection of the Federalists, who believe this might imply to future generations that those inherent rights were subject to amendment.
Given the preeminent status of the Second Amendment and the growing chorus of leftists calling to amend it until they can rally enough populist support to fully repeal it, we should be clear that our Founders never intended for this right to be infringed. And we should be equally clear about what our Founders intended to convey8 with each clause: “A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State,” and “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”
The reference to “a well regulated militia” has been a subject of some popular dispute.
Do these words refer to a standing army as some suggest — a national body of armed forces necessary for the safety and security of the nation, but which could be a potential threat to its citizens under the control of an oppressive regime?
While the militia reference is not to a standing army, it’s clear that our Founders had a uniform concern for such military bodies. At the Constitutional Convention, Madison said: “A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to Liberty. The means of defense against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.”
In Madison’s Federalist Number 469, he declares that the Constitution should be ratified despite fears of a standing army, because Americans are armed, and because they are also organized into state militias not controlled by the proposed federal government.
According to Madison: “Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.”
Madison also observed, prophetically, that in Europe, “the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” (I note “prophetically” because the inability of Europeans to defend themselves against the tyrannical socialist dictatorships of both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin resulted in the deaths of more than 35 million European civilians.)
More specifically, as Noah Webster wrote in 1787: “Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in 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 band of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States. A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive.”
“A people can never be deprived of their liberties,” Webster insisted, “while they retain in their own hands, a power sufficient to any other power in the state.”
Despite this fundamental truth, there exists a cynical and malicious argument for undermining the Second Amendment. This argument is made by historical revisionists who insist that because “a well regulated militia” refers to a state militia (or guard), it only authorizes “the people to keep and bear Arms” in their capacity as members of such militias.
The Second Amendment, however, has two clauses, just as it has two purposes. The first affirms the advantage of “a well regulated militia.” The second affirms the “right of the people” (not state militias) “to keep and bear Arms.” Thus, the second does not limit or restrict10 the right “to keep and bear Arms” to militias, but rather affirms the “right of the people” to do so.
Regarding the Second Amendment’s linguistic construction, writer and constitutional researcher Neil Schulman set himself to the task of clearing up the popular confusion that statists in the Democrat Party11 seek to sow about what the Second Amendment actually affirms.
First, he found one of the nation’s leading academic experts on American language usage, Roy Copperud, a distinguished professor of journalism at the University of Southern California, and the author of American Usage and Style: The Consensus. At the time, he was a member of The American Heritage Dictionary’s usage panel and cited by Merriam Webster’s Usage Dictionary as an renowned expert.
Schulman then asked Professor Copperud to clarify what rights the Second Amendment actually specifies.
Schulman’s first question: “The debate over this amendment has been whether the first part of the sentence, ‘A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State,’ is a restrictive clause or a subordinate clause, with respect to the independent clause containing the subject of the sentence, ‘the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.’ I would request that your analysis of this sentence not take into consideration issues of political impact or public policy, but be restricted entirely to a linguistic analysis of its meaning and intent. Further, since your professional analysis will likely become part of litigation regarding the consequences of the Second Amendment, I ask that whatever analysis you make be a professional opinion that you would be willing to stand behind with your reputation, and even be willing to testify under oath to support, if necessary.”
Schulman: “Can the sentence be interpreted to grant the right to keep and bear arms solely to ‘a well regulated militia’?”
Copperud: “The sentence does not restrict the right to keep and bear arms, nor does it state or imply possession of the right elsewhere or by others than the people; it simply makes a positive statement with respect to a right of the people.”
Schulman: “Is ‘the right of the people to keep and bear Arms’ granted by the words of the Second Amendment, or does the Second Amendment assume a preexisting right of the people to keep and bear arms, and merely state that such right ‘shall not be infringed’?” |
