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How the NRA Rewrote the Second Amendment
POLITICO Magazine ^ | May 19, 2014 | Michael Waldman

Posted on 06/21/2014 9:04:11 PM PDT by ForYourChildren

How the NRA Rewrote the Second Amendment

The Founders never intended to create an unregulated individual right to a gun. Today, millions believe they did. Here’s how it happened.

By MICHAEL WALDMAN
May 19, 2014

"A fraud on the American public.” That’s how former Chief Justice Warren Burger described the idea that the Second Amendment gives an unfettered individual right to a gun. When he spoke these words to PBS in 1990, the rock-ribbed conservative appointed by Richard Nixon was expressing the longtime consensus of historians and judges across the political spectrum.

Twenty-five years later, Burger’s view seems as quaint as a powdered wig. Not only is an individual right to a firearm widely accepted, but increasingly states are also passing laws to legalize carrying weapons on streets, in parks, in bars—even in churches.

Many are startled to learn that the U.S. Supreme Court didn’t rule that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual’s right to own a gun until 2008, when District of Columbia v. Heller struck down the capital’s law effectively banning handguns in the home. In fact, every other time the court had ruled previously, it had ruled otherwise. Why such a head-snapping turnaround? Don’t look for answers in dusty law books or the arcane reaches of theory.

{excerpted}


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2ndamendment; banglist; constitution; guncontrol; nra
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I didn't see this posted. Last month from Politico Magazine, but seems to just have showed up on Yahoo.

The distortions, lies, misrepresentations, and total lack of knowledge shouldn't be surprising, but it always does surprise me.

We live in a world gone insane, Animal Farm insane.

1 posted on 06/21/2014 9:04:11 PM PDT by ForYourChildren
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To: ForYourChildren

Ah, more anti-constitutional garbage from Politico, the premier phony news site, where all the failed writers from the Washington Compost eventually end up.

I have no doubt they’ll soon be hosting screeds from Jennifer Rube and that idiot from the plum line.


2 posted on 06/21/2014 9:06:18 PM PDT by Viennacon
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To: ForYourChildren

“By calling attention to ‘a well regulated militia’, the ‘security’ of the nation, and the right of each citizen ‘to keep and bear arms’, our founding fathers recognized the essentially civilian nature of our economy. Although it is extremely unlikely that the fears of governmental tyranny which gave rise to the Second Amendment will ever be a major danger to our nation, the Amendment still remains an important declaration of our basic civilian-military relationships, in which every citizen must be ready to participate in the defense of his country. For that reason, I believe the Second Amendment will always be important.”

-Senator John F. Kennedy,rightwing extremist, April 1960

“Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. This is not to say that firearms should not be very carefully used and that definite safety rules of precaution should not be taught and enforced. But the right of citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, and one more safeguard against tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.” -Hubert H. Humphrey,bitter clinger,Guns magazine, February 1960, p.6


3 posted on 06/21/2014 9:06:33 PM PDT by TurboZamboni (Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.-JFK)
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To: ForYourChildren

How the NRA stopped us from ignoring the Second Amendment.


4 posted on 06/21/2014 9:07:29 PM PDT by DManA
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To: ForYourChildren

People owned cannons on their private ships in those days!


5 posted on 06/21/2014 9:07:32 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: ForYourChildren

Michael Waldman doesn’t appear to have read any of the writings of the founders on arms.


6 posted on 06/21/2014 9:08:22 PM PDT by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again,")
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To: ForYourChildren
The Founders never intended to create an unregulated individual right to a gun.

Where does this braindead dildo, Waldmann, get his information? Mein Kampf? The Communist Manifesto?

7 posted on 06/21/2014 9:08:57 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Feed the wacko enrviromentalists to the starving polar bears.)
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To: Viennacon

Yes, but Yahoo is reposting it from Politico.


8 posted on 06/21/2014 9:09:49 PM PDT by ForYourChildren (Christian Education [ RomanRoadsMedia.com - a classical Christian approach to homeschool])
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To: ForYourChildren

Politco scribblers are Newsweak and ComPost rejects.


9 posted on 06/21/2014 9:10:30 PM PDT by Red Steel
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To: ForYourChildren

If these chodes would do their homework and read the Founders’ words on the 2nd Amendment, they couldn’t write tripe like this.


10 posted on 06/21/2014 9:11:14 PM PDT by IronJack
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To: ForYourChildren

Yahoo are even less relevant. They recently slurred Christians as ‘Holy Rollers’ in an official ‘gay’ article


11 posted on 06/21/2014 9:13:35 PM PDT by Viennacon
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To: ForYourChildren

Hey Mikey! Try to focus and I’ll ‘esplain” it to you. Who were the Bill of Rights intended for? I won’t mention any names but their initials are THE AMERICAN PEOPLE you moron. Now, why would the founders think it necessary for the government to have the right to form the National Guard? Are you stupid or what?


12 posted on 06/21/2014 9:15:48 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Feed the wacko enrviromentalists to the starving polar bears.)
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To: ForYourChildren

The NRA is preventing tyranny you morons.


13 posted on 06/21/2014 9:16:38 PM PDT by Huskrrrr
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To: IronJack

WHat makes you think reading what the Founders said and wrote about the 2nd Amendment would make then NOT write the lies they do IronJack....these puddles of runny excrement will write anything.


14 posted on 06/21/2014 9:20:14 PM PDT by docman57 (Retired but still on Duty)
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To: ForYourChildren
So the butterfly effect didn't intend for the 2nd Amendment to allow people to own guns.
I bet these people pee their britches when they see a "real gun", and not in a movie.

I cannot imagine their next try at throwing "" at the wall.

15 posted on 06/21/2014 9:20:15 PM PDT by MaxMax (Pay Attention and you'll be pissed off too! FIRE BOEHNER, NOW!)
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To: ForYourChildren

You are full of crap an uneducated lout.

Drunk with reducing your fellow man to subservience of the ruling class.

You are as wrong as a three dollar bill.

(Author)


16 posted on 06/21/2014 9:20:19 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: ForYourChildren

This is a liberal jackass from the NYU “School of Law”. He’s pimping his phony baloney book about how the Bill of Rights were intended for government use only. What a jerk.


17 posted on 06/21/2014 9:22:48 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Feed the wacko enrviromentalists to the starving polar bears.)
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To: ForYourChildren

Son and I went shooting today.

Just finished cleaning the 22 pistol, 22 rifle, .380 pistol, 9mm pistol and the AR.

Was a great day.


18 posted on 06/21/2014 9:27:35 PM PDT by super7man
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To: ForYourChildren

One thing about the left is that they always give you plenty of warning about what they are up to.

They keep hammering away at the 2nd amendment, just like global warming, and normalizing homosexuality.

Out of all the nonsense they push, disarming the American public is really the most important. Once that is done, they can ram whatever they like down our throats.


19 posted on 06/21/2014 9:27:55 PM PDT by TheGipperWasRight
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To: ForYourChildren
The Founders never intended to create an unregulated individual right to a gun.

Bullcrap! Read the Founder's own words. Next!

20 posted on 06/21/2014 9:29:36 PM PDT by TigersEye ("No man left behind" means something different to 0bama.)
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