Defending the Right to ‘Keep and Bear Arms’
Regarding “Ashcroft’s Gunslinger Style,” editorial, May 10: What an outrage! Our U.S. Department of Justice actually has the gall to argue that the constitutional “right of the people to keep and bear arms” means that the people have a constitutional right to keep and bear arms! What will these wild-eyed gunslingers think of next? Maybe they’ll completely flip out and decide that “the people” also have a 1st Amendment right to peaceably assemble and to petition the government for redress, a 4th Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure and 9th and 10th Amendment rights to retain any other rights and powers not enumerated in the Constitution. Heaven forbid.
Jeff Bishop
Culver City
*
One might reasonably paraphrase the 2nd Amendment as saying: Because a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. One might also read it as: A well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state. Therefore, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
However, one cannot plausibly read it to say that the states, or the National Guard, have the right to keep and bear arms but the people do not. That would be rewriting the Constitution. Nor can one read it to say: The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, until such time as the government decides that a well-regulated militia is no longer necessary to the security of a free state. That too would be rewriting the Constitution.
Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft has taken an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. That is precisely what he is doing. If you don’t like what the Constitution says, amend it.
Robert A. Philipson
Santa Monica
*
If Ashcroft and the Justice Department believe that the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution really means the government can’t restrict an individual’s right to bear arms, then why can’t I own a nuclear weapon?
Richard Nathan
Burbank