“The aberration in American history was not Heller but what immediately preceded Heller and passed for academic scholarship and judicial rigor in the middle of the 20th century. It was clear in the 18th century what the Second Amendment meant. It was clear in the 19th century, too.
“It was clear before ratification, at the time of ratification, and after ratification. It was clear before the Civil War, and during the drafting of the 14th Amendment, and to the postbellum segregationists who undermined it whenever they could. It was clear when almost every state added its own protections of the right to keep and bear arms and, in so doing, made a mockery of the idea that the right they were emulating had been born of a desire to limit federal power.
“There has been precisely one plot to recast the Second Amendment and, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, to “make it a blank paper by construction,” and that was the plot that flowered briefly in the middle of the 20th century. We must resolve to make sure that it never does so again.” – Charles. C.W. Cooke in The Truth About The Second Amendment [via nationalreview.com]
This is why the progressives never want to look past the progressive glory days of the Wilsonian era when they want to cite historical precedents.
My favorite argument ender when it comes to Woodrow Wilson is his blatant racism, forced sterilization and embrace of eugenics, the latter of which was actually invented by Charles Darwins cousin. I usually just point to how he re-segregated the federal agencies that had been integrated since reconstruction. That will make a progressive’s head explode when they find out its true. Matter of fact the Nazis in the Nuremberg trials frequently pointed to prominent Americans like Wilson and Sanger as the genesis of their evil ideology, claiming all Hitler did was take it to its logical conclusion. History is truth which is why it’s barely taught at public schools anymore.
Hitler was quite influenced by our system of segregation.
^yes, this.
Go here to read about how Hitler found inspiration from Americans.
Please note that the very same wealthy, liberal, elite socialists were at the heart of eugenics as they are behind the fascist bovine feces of today.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics
You can fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
He segregated the US Navy which may have been up to a quarter non-white. When the US joined WWI, thanks to Wilson, experienced non-white seamen couldn’t serve in combat. That is some sound progressive thinking!
I don’t know why this is so difficult for the left to understand. “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” means exactly that. If we went by the literal meaning of the intent of the founding fathers, who knew a thing or two about out of control government, machine guns, anti-tank missile launchers, cannons, main battle tanks and F-15 Eagles loaded with sidewinders and cluster bombs should be legal to own. The fact that the left is trying to ban semi-auto weapons in some areas shows just how much they’ve taken from us.
They understand it, but they don’t like it. Hence the “living” Constitution. Penumbras and all that.
Let’s be realistic with our common sense. Crew served weapons were owned by the COMMUNITY. Thus the Red Coats marching to seize the village cannon. Today we have not village weapons but are left with the village idiots of the left a shootin off their mouths.
neiowa,
The U.S. Constitution clearly recognizes (and allows) the private ownership of warships, which were giant “crew-served” weapons with cannons and who knows what else. To say that We the People cannot individually own anything beyond small arms or crew-served weapons is not consistent with that fact.
Absolutely true. They were called privateers when serving under the flag of a country, pirates when they were acting for themselves. And some of these pirates commanded fleets, including Black Beard and Jean Lafitte. Black Beard’s first ship, a merchantman he renamed Queen Anne’s Revenge, was equipped with 40 cannon. I don’t know for certain, but private fleets and militias mostly disappeared after the Civil War, but not because of any laws preventing them from purchasing or possessing arms and cannon. I suspect that Teddy’s Rough Riders were one of or the last private militia.
I’m not so sure that you couldn’t by a fully-loaded F-15E. If you’ve got that kind of cash, you can probably also buy any politician or bureaucrat that might stand in the way of the transaction.
There is a lot of former military equipment in private hands. Jets, tanks, assorted motorized vehicles and artillery. Civil war cannon even firing non-explosive ball can be very effective on light skinned vehicals. Firing shot from a cannon would be just as devistating on modern foot soldiers as it was during the civil war. Converting ar15’s to full auto would become a cottage industry if the need ever arised.
Obviously the quality of education at Oxford is light years ahead of Harvard.
Duh “Harvard Professor Calls for Universities to Blacklist Trump Admin Officials”
https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/08/13/harvard-professor-calls-for-universities-to-blacklist-trump-admin-officials/
Harvard (and the rest of the “Ivy League” are a freaking JOKE. Better to send you young skull full of mush ANYWHERE else.
I keep trying to explain this to people, and they shake their heads and say “I don’t know, the 2a is not very clear. Also you really think Vox, The Young Turks, and half the SCOTUS are lying?”
“Yes.”
The Second Amendment affirms our Right to defend our persons and our freedom. It is a guarantee, NOT a grant.
“The Second Amendment … is a guarantee, NOT a grant.”
First, let me say that I am NOT trolling here. Now that I got that out of the way: the Second Amendment does not even guarantee our right to keep and bear arms. Proof: government infringements abound. Rather, the Second Amendment simply states that government has no righteous authority to infringe on that right. It is up to us — We the People — to guarantee that right.
The delicious irony in this whole matter: we, as in We the People, truly NEED arms to absolutely guarantee our right to keep and bear arms!
Thank-you for inferring what I am trying to get people to recognize. It seems one can say over and over the right to defend one’s person and Freedom is a natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right, but people do not seem to grasp that these rights are integral to Human Freedom such that no Freedom can exist without them. Freedom is the main thing and all else flows therefrom.
I have gone so far as to say that the only rights are those actions which a person will forcefully defend and hold for themselves. There really is no other definition that works.
You can convince yourself of almost anything. And people do. In order to reconcile, rationalize or simply to avoid coming to terms with reality and substituting their own alternative reality, they convince themselves that the words don’t really say what they say or mean what they mean.
Yes. Such people elevate emotion and virtue (at least their notion of it) above facts, reality, and truth. Stubborn and destructive creatures they are.
grabbers….be careful where the dog s**ts you
You’re really getting a lot of use out of that line, eh?
looking for another one
Control is an illusion. Those who espouse it are delusional.
Rights have no restrictions upon the free exercise thereof. None.
There are no limitations upon the keeping and bearing of arms which are Constitutionally allowed.
There are no limitations upon the free exercise of speech; why then would anyone think limits should be placed upon arms?
Gman,
Such people do not THINK there should be limits on arms. Rather, such people FEEL that there should be limits on arms.
Hurr durr fire in a crowded theater
Don’t know what hurr durr is, but nothing stops one from doing it. The word fire has not been “banned”.
Exactly. People always try to make that comparison but the fact is you only get in trouble for shouting fire in a movie theater for damages caused by your actions (injuries, damages to the business, etc). So why should you get in trouble for simply owning/possessing a weapon when you haven’t caused harm by doing so (and hoplophobes having heart attacks doesn’t count, that’s their mental disorder, not my guns)
My favorite response to that one: “So you believe it should be illegal to protest the draft?” Usually they don’t know that was the context in which it was originally used by Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Haven’t done this for a while so…
There is precisely NO legal prohibition from yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre. Especially, if there is, in fact, an actual fire.
There is, however, what happens next. If there was no fire, then our speaker has some ‘splainin’ to do. Especially if anyone was injured as a result of their exiting, or just the lost revenue for the theater.
Net, net – free speech can have consequences including libel, slander, inciting a riot, etc. But there is no judicial prior restraint on almost any speech, no matter how stupid.
No prior restraint…yet. Our friendly neighborhood progressives are going after the First Amendment just as much as the Second. “Hate speech,” anyone?
“But there is no judicial prior restraint on almost any speech, no matter how stupid.”
To finish the “Fire!”in a theater analogy, there is no one at the door of the theater duct-taping movie-goers mouths shut to prevent them from yelling “Fire!” if there was a fire.
Patrons are *trusted* not to do so in the theater…
Were you aware that “fire in a crowded theater” was the result of Woodrow Wilson’s supreme court appointees agreeing with Wilson’s underlings that opposing the draft wasn’t free speech?
The intent of the Progs is to destroy the Constitution. Not JUST the 2nd.
Charlie Cooke is a very welcome asset to the 2A side.
When the socialist progressive start to hear the truth, they will call you homophobic, racist, fascist, etc,etc,etc.
It all started when Clayton E Cramer published his Racist Orgins of Gun Control on the internet in 1993. If a white pro gun person quoted from this, they were called a racist. If a black person quoted from this they were ignored.
The film “Death of a Nation” is also a great source for information, that the Democrat progressives want to hide.
JPFO link to Cramer’s well referenced work:
http://jpfo.org/articles-assd02/cramer-racist-roots.htm
Thanks for the Link.
And have you noticed the two biggest sh!t eating grins in the picture?
The young man in the middle holding the Tommy gun.
And the very proud (rightfully so) papa.
Well done sir! An inspiration for all American families…
Dont forget the racist roots of gun control during this time.
“The foregoing cases suggest that specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights have penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance.”
Justice Douglas’ mystical navel gazing was the rule rather than the exception not too long ago. This is the kind of idiotic drivel that passed for judicial scholarship.
A lot of judges remain tethered to the glorious days of yesteryear when courts made sh!t up and nobody could do a damn thing about it. More than Congress, more than the Executive Branch, more than any state or local governments, those judges are the reason why we need the Second Amendment more than ever before.
Politicians are scum and we know it. Judges are supposed to be better. They’re not. They’re much, much worse and far more dangerous.
Reply to Ralph:
Those powers not explicitly enumerated to the FED are the domain of the individual states. The individual states are then free to abuse the hell out of their citizens under the guise of “civil courts”. The FED gives little concern to civil matters beyond actual, provable, discrimination. States, on the other hand, practice discrimination widely in conformance and continuation of “common law”. Common Law, much like “common sense”, doesn’t always make sense (or reasonable law for that matter). And just as Ralph points out – it is THESE judges, our own locally elected (sometimes) judges, that are the biggest danger to our freedoms. Ask any man in NC that’s been to Divorce Court. Lifetime alimony? That is de facto indentured servitude – supposedly outlawed over 100 years ago. They’re not all black anymore, but America is still full of slaves. Don’t get me started on big corporate and the slave wages they pay while the CEOs and corporate officers join in with the unprecedented number of millionaires in the grand ol’ US and A.
While I’m on a rant….why do crazy assholes target normal folk? If I decided I’d had enough to go out in a blaze of glory…..I think I’d be taking some politicians, judges, bad cops, lawyers, or late night talk show hosts with me.
-Justin Sayin’ (say it fast with a hick accent – just insane)
Our freedoms are not free , we must fight for them , lest the leftist tyrants will use any means they can to disarm us. Both physically and mentally. That is the sickening truth , the left are liars and thieves , if given the opportunity they would disarm us in our sleep. Be vigilant , be truthfull , and beware the tyrants in our midst !! Support the 2nd amendment , the NRA and any POTG fighting our cause.
Domestic tyranny and terrorism are alive and well in the US. What’s sad is the proponents are so obvious yet no one is being taken to task or held accountable for committing treason out in the open.
1933: (Democrat controlled) congress pass law limiting food production in an ill concived attempt to fix the great depression. (Democrat) President signs it. Mass starvation ensues.
1934: The same congress passes and same president signs a bill banning the most important, and soon most common, firearms in the world from civilian hands
1938: (Still Democrat, mostly the same members) Congress doubles down on both food production limits and gun control. Same president signs them. More mass starvation ensues.
1942: Same president starts concentration camps (a term he explicitly uses) on American soil for American citizens, which (a Democrat, still mostly the same as the 1933 makeup) congress funds them.
Cuomo-the-younger was running the government back then?
It’s an aberrition now, haven’t y’all figured that out yet? It’s all about the money folks. That’s why Obama was the biggest and best pitchman for the gun industry. I’ll know that’s untrue when they kick in my door in at 3:30 am on a Tuesday morning. They ain’t going to take your guns folks, if they do anything they’ll just make it impossible to get bullets. Making all those guns just door stops and paperweights. Stop worrying, just stock up on ammo now while it’s still cheap and available.
I just got a deal on a book on Amazon by Joyce Lee Malcolm – or as National Review calls her “The Nice Girl Who Saved the Second Amendment”. Her scholarship wasn’t the only piece of work that was highly influential in the result of the Heller Decision, but it was quite likely the major reason for the decision. The book is “To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right”. Check it out on Amazon. The leather bound edition ran me right at $70, and I was glad to pay it. It was originally written in 1994. Joyce Lee Malcolm is one bad-ass intellectual warrior. She is currently a faculty member at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.
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