Re: 2nd Amendment Militia Clause - try this... -- Liberty For All

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Subject:

Re: 2nd Amendment Militia Clause - try this...

Author:
James Merritt

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Date Posted: 15:23:04 01/20/03 Mon
In reply to: Mike Ferguson 's message, "Re: 2nd Amendment Militia Clause - try this..." on 16:37:34 01/09/03 Thu

Two comments: First, people who wish to preserve, protect, and defend the 2nd Amendment should read the US Court of Appeals 5th Circuit decision in Emerson, which confirms an individual right to keep and bear arms. This stands in sharp relief to Silveira v. Lockyer, as decided recently by the 9th Circuit, in which the judges admit only a collective right to keep and bear arms. The 5th Circuit reasoning appears to be better articulated and substantiated than that of the 9th Circuit (and other circuits that have adopted the "collective rights") view. Emerson gives a lot of material to those who have to assert or defend the common-sense individual rights interpretation. I expect the conflicting views of the 2nd Amendment to show up in the Supreme Court someday soon, and Emerson will certainly loom large in the brief for the "individual right" side of the case.

Second: Liberty Rogue once again lets slide the fact that Libertarians are often incorrectly tagged as "extreme right wing." As much as we need to correct misunderstandings about the militia, and about the militia clause in the 2nd Amendment, we desperately need to defend the simple word "libertarian" against dilution, mis-definition, and miscategorization. Libertarians are as "left wing" as they are "right wing" in my experience, only because they are always pro-freedom and the traditional left-wing and right-wing have taken slices from opposite sides of the freedom pie.

Don't let them pigeon-hole you, Libertarians. Don't let clearly non-libertarians dilute the meaning of the word by claiming that label as their own. This is how "liberal" got to be a dirty word, remember?

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