Publicity about “town hall” gatherings to push for gun control prompts the following remarks.
“…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Infringe: “actively break the terms of (a law, agreement, etc.).” “act so as to limit or undermine (something); encroach on”
There is no wiggle room in the Second Amendment. Efforts to limit the right to keep and bear arms can gain no constitutional traction – it’s simply not there. Neither will such traction be found in defining “Arms”, which means weapons and ammunition. Neither can taxation be used to limit this right, because that’s an act that’s infringement.
Even if there were no constitution and/or no Second Amendment, that is, even if the constitution were amended in an attempt to eliminate or modify this right, this right would still be a human right and a natural right. The right to defend oneself necessarily accompanies the rights to one’s life, liberty and property; because unless one has the means to effect those rights, they are not in effect, and life as a material human being doesn’t get much more basic than possessing rights to one’s life, liberty and property.
The progressive/leftist push for infringing the right to keep and bear arms has no constitutional legs to stand on and still less of a natural rights basis. It has no pragmatic basis either, but that’s another story. All it has is misdirected emotion.
1:16 pm on April 5, 2018
