Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: This message was self-deleted by its author [View all]jimmy the one
(2,708 posts)sari: Consider again this from Mr. Jefferson "On every occasion let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
What jeff wrote, again, comports with the historical interpretation of the 2nd amendment as a militia rkba. The current individual rkba is Scalia's revisionist history, not stare' decisis.
Jefferson also believed this, sari, so don't you think he'd believe that the 2nd amendment today is outdated obsolete & more a danger to americans? than in 1776 when they had single shot muskets?
Jefferson, 1789, prior to bill of rights: Every constitution, then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of nineteen years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right. It may be said, that the succeeding generation exercising, in fact, the power of repeal, this leaves them as free as if the constitution or law had been expressly limited to nineteen years only. In the first place, this objection admits the right, in proposing an equivalent. But the power of repeal is not an equivalent. It might be, indeed, if every form of government were so perfectly contrived, that the will of the majority could always be obtained, fairly and without impediment. But this is true of no form. The people cannot assemble themselves; their representation is unequal and vicious. Various checks are opposed to every legislative proposition. Factions get possession of the public councils, bribery corrupts them, personal interests lead them astray from the general interests of their constituents; and other impediments arise, so as to prove to every practical man, that a law of limited duration is much more manageable than one which needs a repeal." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1789. ME 7:459, Papers 15:396
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch2s23.html
Gee, I guess jeff thought the AWB shoulda lasted 19 years!