The 221st Anniversary of the 2nd Amendment

Video from Pix 11

What does the 2A have to do with the Connecticut massacre, you ask? Well, let's see.

It's a distorted understanding of the Amendment which fuels the gun culture in the US. Whenever pressured or placed in a corner, gun-rights folks, whom I blame for the countless tragedies, proffer the old justifications, "it's a right."

Actually, it's not. I say that in spite of the recent mistaken rulings by the conservative and gun-lobby-influenced Supreme Court, rulings which by the way I believe will be overturned in years to come.

ACLU POSITION

Given the reference to "a well regulated Militia" and "the security of a free State," the ACLU has long taken the position that the Second Amendment protects a collective right rather than an individual right. For seven decades, the Supreme Court's 1939 decision in United States v. Miller was widely understood to have endorsed that view.

The Supreme Court has now ruled otherwise. In striking down Washington D.C.'s handgun ban by a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court's 2008 decision in D.C. v. Heller held for the first time that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep and bear arms, whether or not associated with a state militia.

The ACLU disagrees with the Supreme Court's conclusion about the nature of the right protected by the Second Amendment.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Cross posted at Mikeb302000