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Another New Book Available: States of the Union, The History of the United States through Presidential Addresses, 1789-2023

Mount Greylock Books LLC has published States of the Union: The History of the United States through Presidential Addresses, 1789-2023.   St...

Saturday, June 03, 2023

A post from the past

 For the next few weeks, History Unfolding will repost some key posts from the past.  The first is this 2008 post about the majority opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller, which for the first time created an individual right to bear arms under the Second Amendment.  Justice Thomas extended Scalia's logic a yer ago.  

1 comment:

Energyflow said...

We might imagine a world where the original intent were to be upheld, i.e. protection of the populace against the central govt through possession of armaments and running of private militias. This would in effect be similar to the narco-militias in Mexico who form parallel governments in the regions, are highly armed and lawless. Before the advent of modern devices such as trains, planes, automobiles, electricity, tanks, machine guns, a few men on hoseback with single shot muskets was sufficient deterrent against overbearing rulers. These were only invented several hundred years before by the way. The private self protection concept is modern. This is as relevant as my reading perhaps LGBTQ rights into the constitution or the Bible for that matter. Actually then if I were to build a tank, machine guns, etc and train a local militia in my area of my local state then this would be constitutionally protected behavior. More so than everyman having a handgun for self protection. However, now this has been turned around. I was always confused about this whole matter until reading your article. Weapon possession right is against state interference, not burglars and "arms" cannot be limited, i.e. if the central givernment is nuclear armed or has bio or chemical weapons, then by gum so can I. This seems utterly absurd to us now but follows logically. Obviously the constitution is a relic of the past. Interpreting obscure bible verses, originally written in Aramaic and recopied by hand hundreds of times so that the original has been lost, to fit purely modern needs is similarly idiotic. The technology has changed radically. The free speech, assembly and press rights have perhaps less to fear although internet has altered the landscape recently and large providers hold too much sway.