It's fun to post. This thread though has to take the cake for being the longest and most argumentative (perhaps) during the Board's tenure. While reading its posts I've noticed that not many of them cite academic references. Maybe doing so would be more instructive and conclusive. If you haven't already, you might try (or not) reading Madison's Bill of Rights proposal to the 1st US House; read the relevant text of the 1789 House and Senate Journals; read Akhil Amar's biography of the Constitution as well as his Bill of Rights work; read the Supreme Court's entire Heller opinion (or at least the Syllabus of it); read Max Farrand's Records of the Constitutional Convention; familiarize yourself with the concept of Original Intent; of course, read the Constitution, but read it as a person in 18th century America would read and understand it.
Good points. In particular read the Stevens dissent in Heller as well as the Scalia majority opinion. Heller was the first Supreme Court decision to address the Second Amendment in considerable detail, and is fascinating not only for what it addresses, but also for what it doesn't.
A misconception about the Second Amendment, which has been frequently advanced by the NRA leadership, but has no basis in reality, is that it was inserted to protect American citizens from possible tyranny and dictatorship from its own government. This is part of what conservative Chief Justice Burger had in mind when he said that the gun lobby's preaching on Second Amendment rights is one of the biggest frauds perpetuated on the American people. Scalia even distanced himself from this fallacy.
At the time of its ratification the United States did not have, nor did they want to have a standing army. It was considered that from time to time it may be necessary to defend itself from Indians and foreign invaders, or to put down insurrections. That was the necessity of a militia. We did not need an armed citizenry to defend itself from a tyrannical or dictatorial American government as the document itself, which these brilliant men created, served the purpose.
