"In support of gun controls like the D.C. ordinance, liberals stress the amendments dependent clause to argue that the right to bear arms is limited to those who are or may become part of a state militia. If a state wants to forego raising a militia this way, liberals argue, it can nullify the right."The liberal opinion about the 2nd A. is just more evidence that ignorance of the Constitution and its history is epidemic. Widespread ignorance of the Constitution is also evidenced by the following link.
http://tinyurl.com/npt6tBut the truth about the 2nd A. is that John Bingham, the main author of Sect. 1 of the 14th A., included the 2nd A. when he read the first eight amendments as examples of constitutional statutes defining personal privileges and immunities that the 14th A. made mandatory for the states to respect. So there is no doubt in my mind that the 2nd A. protects the personal right to bear arms from both the feds and the states as much as any other constitutional privilege and immunity helps to protect other personal rights. See the 2nd A. in the middle column of the following page from the Congressional Record.
http://tinyurl.com/y3ne4nThe bottom line is that the people need to wise up to politically correct interpretations of the Constitution, particularly where their privileges and immunities are being threatened by special interest factions. The people need to petition lawmakers, judges and justices who are not upholding their oaths to defend the Constitution, demanding that they resign from their jobs.
I have to disagree with you. It is not “epidemic” it is “endemic” to the libs. :)
The U.S. Supreme Court corrected that interpretation in the Slaughterhouse Cases a few years later.