Gun rights case: Supreme Court rules on second amendment

I agree with you about Roe, but I think the vast majority of abortions were before viability anyhow. I never particularly liked the decision, because I found it to be too much like legislation (not the court's role) and not a Remedy (which is the court's role).

In my view, abortion should be legal, and the woman has every right to privacy and her own body. Though at some point there is an implicit contract (parental rights in exchange for bringing the fetus to term) that is applied. I do see abortion as killing a human being, but I see that killing human beings is something that happens lawfully all the time - cops shoot people, people kill people in self defense (which is what abortion is!), people kill people on the battlefield, people kill people when it comes to the death penalty, etc.

I posted the quote from Jefferson because it may give us a clue as to what the people involved in writing the constitution and knew its original intent had to say at the time.

 

http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/wew/quotes/arms.html

Read for yourself.

 

Obviously, then, basketball should not be allowed.

As to the point, it's quite obvious that arms are no longer necessary to defend from usurpers within or without. We have the biggest military in the world to defend ourselves from without, and plenty-o-police/fbi/secret service to defend ourselves from within. It's no more relevant to the modern world than is his admonition against playing hoops.

barfo

 

Here's sig material. Quote if you like:

The constitution has mechanisms that allow it to be changed. Go for it. Otherwise, there's nothing about how some concept perfectly provided by the constitution affects the way barfo's sphincter twitches that it should be changed.

 

No, Denny was talking about usurpers of government, not personal property.

Personal protection is a whole different matter, and may or may not justify gun ownership, but certainly has nothing to do with the 2nd amendment, unless you are bunking a "well-regulated Militia" in your house.

barfo

 

Personally, I've always viewed the entire Bill of Rights as primarily protecting the populace against potential government overreaches. With that in mind, I've always viewed the "right to bear arms" as intended to ensure that the general populace has the means to defend themselves against a government that attempts to migrate from democracy to monarchy. In my mind, the "militia" portion of the 2nd amendment is essentially acknowledging that the government will, by definition of its responsibilities, be armed, therefore it is important the the citizenry also retain the right to be armed, lest they be unable to withstand tyranny.

 

That makes sense to me, historically. It doesn't make much sense to me in the context of the current situation. Because if the government goes bad, what of the military? If they turn against the government, game over - no need for citizens to fire a shot. If they side with the government, game over. Our muskets and such aren't going to be any match for their weaponry.

Where weapons will be really useful is if the government collapses altogether. Then we can shoot each other with our guns. That'll be some big fun.

barfo

 

In that case, see my prior post: your guns have zero hope of prevailing. Back when there were just muskets and cannons, guys with muskets could hope to prevail. Guys with handguns and rifles cannot hope to win out against a force with drones, f-22s, tanks, etc.

barfo

 

Oh! I forgot about the superiority of the private sector! Silly me. No doubt with the savings from not paying slavery taxes, we could construct our own fighter planes, nuclear warheads, and tanks. And if not, we could make a strategic alignment with Iran, or North Korea. The battle would be glorious!

barfo

 

MARIS actually got one right.

 

That's nothing. I have a 9mm pistol embedded in my abdomen. I was having surgery a few years back and paid the surgeon to install it. If I press a finger into my belly in just the right spot, I can fire a round into anyone standing in front of me.

The only downside is that I always set off the metal detectors at airports.

barfo