On Sat, 11 Sep 2004, David H. Askew wrote:
... i couldn't resist
I think most people would agree that, despite the unparralleled intelligence of the framers, the Constitution is a document of limited wording, and that it has been utilized by the Supreme Court as a basis for many decisions that the framers never envisioned. While I would agree that, under a free society, gun-control of any kind is a threat to my liberty, I would also agree, that we need to have a good balance between personal freedom and national security.
Would you at least agree that, a rational basis and a compelling government interest test should be passed before gun control laws could stand? Would you at least agree that the second amendment should be treated like the first?
If you take the constitution at its face value, the the framers envisioned that every man should be allowed to own a single shot, barrel-loading, musket.
That's absolutely wrong. There were more sophisticated weapons availible at the time. And there's no reason to think that the framers wanted the weapons we might have a right to own be frozen in time, like that. It might be more reasonable to assume that the framers wanted ordinary citizens to possess those weapons that a common soldier might carry.
It all comes down to this:
- the framers intended on us being well armed.
- the framers had no idea of the kind of weapons we would create.
- the framers never invisioned the violent society we live in (gloabal and
domestic)
I for one, support the ban of assault weapons, but then again I have a reasonably tough time legitamizing the value of owning such weapons, in light of the domestic and global threats we face. If we live in a society that makes people think that they really "need" an assault weapon, then freedom has long since left the building and we might as well all move to Israel.
The assault weapon's ban would pass neither a rational basis test nor a complelling government intrest test, and it certainly wouldn't hold up to anything like the scrutiny used to defend the first amendment.
I think its funny that the Democrats support every ammendment but the second, and the Republicans only support the second one.
I agree. We should support them all.
Adrian