The Proper Remedy for the National Ignorance of the Second Amendment

 

John Manimas' position on the important issue of public violence and the power of the government to regulate lethal weapons in order to protect the public health and welfare:

The right to personal security, and home security, is distinctly separate from rights of the member States to maintain a militia for defense of people and property.

 

Article 1, Section 8:  The Congress shall have the power to:

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

 

Amendment 2

A well regulated Militia, (*) being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.  (See key phrases below.*)

 

Amendment 4 (*)

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

 

Key phrases in Art. 1, Section 8:

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;(**)

 

A Reasonable Person Interpretation:

* The right to possess a firearm for personal or household protection IS NOT the same as the right of a member of a State Militia (National Guard) to possess an automatic firearm or lethal weapon designed for warfare combat.  The Fourth Amendment shows that the framers of the Constitution recognized the right of every citizen to enjoy personal security as well as home security.  The Fourth Amendment is sufficient to protect the right of a citizen to possess a firearm suitable for this purpose of personal protection, but not a cannon, a machine gun, a tank or bomb  -- weapons of war.

 

** The Congress is vested with the power to make laws or regulations that establish standards of physical and mental health for certification of members of a State Militia.  The best way to resolve this problem is for the Congress to enforce the Second Amendment and pass laws that separate weapons for personal safety from weapons of war.  Law-abiding citizens can possess weapons for personal safety, but only a State Certified member of the State Militia can possess weapons designed for military combat.  The Congress can and should pass laws that describe the minimal state of physical and emotional health required for a citizen to be certified as a member of a State Militia.  That power of the Congress is clearly stated in Section 8.  A Constitutional "originalist" could not sincerely argue that the Second Amendment gives every individual citizen, or non-governmental groups, the right to accumulate their own personal armory in preparation for civil war.  This kind of activity, preparation for armed rebellion, may be justified philosophically or morally under conditions of tyranny, but is never supported by civil law.  There is no legal right to disobey the law and resist the government with armed force.  If enacted properly, the law would make it illegal for a citizen to possess a weapon of war unless a Certified member of the State Militia.  The meaning of the Second Amendment is properly interpreted only when we acknowledge that at the time of the ratification of the Constitution, guns were still made by a gunsmith and were not mass produced.  Further, the metallic cartridge that made a repeating rifle and handgun possible was not produced until 1845.  At the time of ratification, "bearing arms" meant possession of a firearm that required reloading with powder, a wad, a ball and a ramrod.