Deavis - I didn't actually know the founders commented on the right of criminals and defective individuals to bear arms (I doubt this is the term they used though) being taken away, but hurah for them for thinking of it, and that only proves my point. As for prisoners, call it what you will, but the fact is we do not allow them to bear arms if they've commited a crime - even one not involving a gun. Sounds like non-absolute rights to me. As for Dave's point about the D.C. law preventing everyone from bearing firearms, that may yet be ruled unconstitutional, but it doesn't change the fact there should be tighter integration between the mental health system and the gun delivery system so people with mental defects or disease will not be allowed to have guns. Furthermore, I am quite sure Washington, Jefferson and Adams etc. would never have imagined that people with such troubled histories would be allowed to have such dangerous weapons. We'll never know for sure, but I'd love to know where those "numerous quotes" could be found. I recently reread the constitution and the declaration of independence, and clearly in both documents, gun-owning was seen as a way of thwarting foreign invasion, not for defense of a person's home, though that may have been an incidental side-benefit.
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OK, Obama believes that the 2nd Amendment provides an individual's right to bear arms. What he supports are a communities'... [MORE]
Julia
Mar 18, 2008 11:13
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