Breyer: Founding Fathers Would Have Allowed Restrictions on Guns

Foxnews ^ | Dec 12, 2010 | Foxnews

[driftdiver]

If you look at the values and the historical record, you will see that the Founding Fathers never intended guns to go unregulated, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer contended Sunday.

Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Breyer said history stands with the dissenters in the court's decision to overturn a Washington, D.C., handgun ban in the 2008 case "D.C. v. Heller."

Breyer wrote the dissent and was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He said historians would side with him in the case because they have concluded that Founding Father James Madison was more worried that the Constitution may not be ratified than he was about granting individuals the right to bear arms.

[GoldenPup]

BRAVO!! You certainly did your homework. Thanks for posting.

[montag813]

Breyer is going insane. First hinting that burning a Koran (and ONLY a Koran) might be unconstitutional, then backtracking on Larry King Alive. Now this demented screed. Where are the SNL parodies?

[Leo Farnsworth]

“...have immediately hung the scum...”

Men are not ‘hung’ (except John Holmes - he's dead).

Men are HANGED:

Is hanged,
Was hanged,
Shall be hanged.

If a man is ‘hung’ this is a family forum and you cannot write about it here.

I do agree with your point BTW.

[mjp]

He said historians would side with him in the case because they have concluded that Founding Father James Madison was more worried that the Constitution may not be ratified than he was about granting individuals the right to bear arms.

If he would read about history and natural rights, he would learn that the right to keep and bear arms was considered by the Founders to be an unalienable right connected with and related to the preservation of life, liberty, and property.

[drpix]

He must be referring to his "founding fathers" Marx & Engels.

[terycarl]

Exactly. And would 18th Century Americans have joined a Union that had the right to take away their guns

I simply don't believe that people in that day and age would have even considered restricting firearms....they (firearms) were actually part of the culture...virtually every family had them

[PghBaldy]

Is he saying they might have, as in if they could it all over? Well, that is not good enough. They did not, so whatever liberal “historians” are saying is meaningless. We don’t elect, or nominate (through elected representatives who nominate said judges) historians to rule on legal issues.

[kcvl]

He can now read the minds of dead people. Amazing. /s

[PghBaldy]

I thought that was Souter whose house was involved?

[prolusion]

Our new Industrial Military Complex being necessary for us to remain a free state, and possessing the ability to free it's self from, or turn against us, we must reserve for ourselves the right to obtain, keep, and use modern arms. No law shall have jurisdiction over this right.

My take on the second. We citizens are the regulators, not Congress. The Complex is the regulated entity, not some ad hoc militia. I include the three branches of government within this Industrial Military Complex.

[SunkenCiv]

If the case had been whether or not Moslems were allowed concealed carry because of some 6ull$h!+ made-up ad hoc “belief” that made it impossible to search them, he’d have ruled in favor of the Moslems. He’s just another anti-American a-hole from the Party of the Single Party State / Party of Treason. Thanks driftdiver.

[rustbucket]

Nice collection of quotes. To those I would add the following statement (the bold statement below) in the New York ratification document, the document by which New York ratified the Constitution [my emphasis below]:

WE the Delegates of the People of the State of New York, duly elected and Met in Convention, having maturely considered the Constitution for the United States of America, agreed to on the seventeenth day of September, in the year One thousand Seven hundred and Eighty seven, by the Convention then assembled at Philadelphia in the Common-wealth of Pennsylvania (a Copy whereof precedes these presents) and having also seriously and deliberately considered the present situation of the United States, Do declare and make known.

... That the People have a right to keep and bear Arms; that a well regulated Militia, including the body of the People capable of bearing Arms, is the proper, natural and safe defence of a free State;

Under these impressions and declaring that the rights aforesaid cannot be abridged or violated, and that the Explanations aforesaid are consistent with the said Constitution, And in confidence that the Amendments which shall have been proposed to the said Constitution will receive an early and mature Consideration: We the said Delegates, in the Name and in the behalf of the People of the State of New York Do by these presents Assent to and Ratify the said Constitution.

Although something similar later became the Second Amendment, the New York ratification was not conditional in any way. It was a statement of what the unamended Constitution meant. Hamilton and Jay, two of the three authors of the Federalist Papers, voted for the New York ratification document.

Also from the 1776 Constitution of Pennsylvania:

XIII. That the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves and the state

[PzLdr]

This is what happens when the Constitution becomes a “living document”, and the idiot elitists appointed to the Supreme Court figure they’re smarter than the Founders.

[skinkinthegrass]

Smug, arrogant, self-satisfied jerks!

I wonder, If this "so-called" Justice has Secret Service protection...
..do all retired USSC justices revive such armed protection?
b/c he seems to be obvious to the Criminal element.

[He Rides A White Horse]

Unwilling: during the LA riots and Crown Heights riots, people were essentially on their own, the police were for the most part standing down.

Seemed to me that they were more or less running away.

[Christian Engineer Mass]

“Thomas is an idiot and comes off as one whenever he opens his mouth”

nonsense.
http://www.2shared.com/audio/sRXOdCPa/Oct_1_07_-_Clarence_Thomas_Int.html

[He Rides A White Horse]

I simply don't believe that people in that day and age would have even considered restricting firearms....they (firearms) were actually part of the culture...virtually every family had them

Fast forward to 19th century...Sea to shining sea would not have occurred with unarmed pioneers.

[skinkinthegrass]

Breyer is the asshat that almost had his house taken away from him after he
ruled that it was fine for towns to steal peoples land away from them.

true....
(IIRC)...the town STILL HAS NOT developed the land condemned
for the promised revenue..the "development deal" flew through.
I wonder if any envious councilmember(s) acquired the land.

[MileHi]

Stunningly stupid comment

[swaimh]

Because the American Revolution was won with registered firearms...