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Uh huh.

Okay, then, you have slipped permanently over the line into becoming a complete waste of time. Clearly you prefer a Nation in which children are being murdered at the rate of thousands per year, rather than risk giving up your penis substitute.

I have better things to do that read your blather.

Some that actually come FROM the Constitution would be fun.

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Well then, "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.", seems pretty clear. The people have the right and the government cannot infringe on it.

Uh huh.

Okay, then, you have slipped permanently over the line into becoming a complete waste of time. Clearly you prefer a Nation in which children are being murdered at the rate of thousands per year, rather than risk giving up your penis substitute.

I have better things to do that read your blather.

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 It certainly seems you have better things to do than actually present evidence to back up your arguments.

Well then, "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.", seems pretty clear. The people have the right and the government cannot infringe on it.

Why not quote the preceeding portion, Michael?

Well, that's the crux isn't it?  Michael does what many on his side do daily: quote the last portion without including the first.  Context is everything, yet it's blindly tossed to the side in order to bolster an opinion. My next door neighbor is no more a part of a "well regulated militia" because he owns an Uzi than is the person who espouses that they need a gun to protect home and hearth.

Why not quote the preceding portion, Michael?

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I'm happy too. But I can find no evidence that the Founders intended the second portion to be contingent on service to the government.

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Well, that's the crux isn't it?  Michael does what many on his side do daily: quote the last portion without including the first.  Context is everything, yet it's blindly tossed to the side in order to bolster an opinion.

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 Well, I have attempted to provide some context, which is more that your side seems capable of.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Notice that the First Amendment makes no attempt whatsoever to define CONTEXT. The freedoms it guarantees are complete and absolute. The Second Amendment BEGINS by establishing context.

(To this end Jefferson criticized the decision in Marbury v. Madison as potentially placing the country under the despotism of an oligarchy.)

Edited by Geoff Gibson on 30 July 2010 at 12:43pm

Michael Abby wrote: Well, I have attempted to provide some context, which is more that your side seems capable of.

The context is in the language.  It's there for all to see: "well regulated militia".  As has been said in this thread, the first informs the second, the second informs the first.  They can not be divorced from one another, as you are readily able to do, in order to justify your opinion. That's all the context you need.  What does not provide context, at all and on any planet, is cutting it in half.

By leaving out the first part, you are in no way providing context, Michael.  You are eliminating or skirting it because it doesn't fit with your opinion.  It's intellectually dishonest to omit a portion that doesn't jibe with your opinion and then state that you're providing context.

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Please. It was in response to,

"Once more, with feeling:

"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state…", then, "Some that actually come FROM the Constitution would be fun."

I was actually completing it from JB's post. But you knew that.

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, shall not be infringed.

Yeah! I LIKE that!