Posted by
Mike on Thursday, April 19, 2007 10:21:13 PM
The states began as sovereign entities under the Constitution.
The Bill of Rights began as limitations on the power of the federal
government only. After the Civil War, the protections of the Bill
of Rights were extended to limit the powers of the individual states
through additional amendments. Since originally the states were
free to restrict gun ownership, the Second Amendment should now be
interpreted as limiting the federal government, and limiting the states
from disarming the citizenry because such disarming would only have the
same result as a federal ban on firearms.
None of the enumerated rights in the Constitution are absolute.
The states can, and do, regulate gun ownership and possession. So
does the federal government. Recently, the federal court in D.C.
did finally recognize that the Second Amendment does indeed upold the
rights of citizens of the United States to own and possess firearms.