Bill of Rights refresher course

[capt_drake]

First Amendment - 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.

Second Amendment - A well regulated militia, being

Comments

[eliset]

I understand some hesitency with ex-felons - after all, prisons aren't about rebilitation, but more often about male rape and recidivism. That being said, after a certain amount of time has passed (7 years in TX), employers at least can't consider previous convictions.

That being said, I don't grok the 2nd ammendment people. How many pro-gun people are a part of a well-organized militia? IE, an army composed of ordinary citizens rather than professional soldiers.

[decibel45]

Because if the intent of the amendment was to limit gun ownership to those in a militia, it would have stated exactly that.

It's also important to think of a militia as essentially a guerrilla group. It's something that springs up as needed. There was no militia in the colonies until fit started hitting the shan with England.

[eliset]

As to not spam capt-drake's livejournal, I'm going to take this to my own. :) I'm interested in your constitutional interpretation, so I hope you'll reply over there.

[capt_drake]

Heh, That's actually a valid point.

We have no well-known state militias, because the National Guard is Federally funded and staffed. There are numerous Texas militias, but I accept your point.

The "desire" of the second amendment (Since this isn't truly documented, I'll have to stipulate this as an opinion), was to create a check/balance for an overly oppressive government. This is exactly what happened in the Revolutionary War. The british army was just as trained as the army of the United States, but it was through the "guerrilla tactics" invoked by Militia men (usually former soldiers from the French-Indian war) that allowed our country the upper hand in such a war.

[decibel45]

So here's a riddle.... with 9 and 10 in there, why do 1-8 exist? (IIRC they all grant rights and don't revoke anything).

[captspastic]

Don't forget, you can get a felony conviction, and never serve a day in prison

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[anonymous]

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