October 2011 issue of Freedom's Phoenix magazine - fr33aid

Don’t Cherish the 2nd Amendment!
By Marc J. Victor
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I was recently
asked to write
an article which
would be of interest
to people
who cherish the
2nd Amendment
to the United
States Constitution.
1 Few people
have more experience talking to others who
cherish the 2nd Amendment than me. I am the
only attorney who is regularly invited to speak
to groups of people in Arizona who attend the
Crossroads of the West 2 gun shows about their
rights and responsibilities as firearms owners.
Indeed, I enjoy talking to people who cherish the
2nd Amendment, and I acknowledge, agree and
respect the rights of free and responsible adults
to acquire, possess and sell whatever weapons
they peacefully obtain. I am far more concerned
about the government bearing arms than I am
about responsible citizens bearing arms.
However, I often wonder if the people who
cherish the 2nd Amendment also cherish freedom.
They are not the same concepts. Like
everything else in the Constitution, the 2nd
Amendment is subject to interpretation. Until
the year 2008, it was a subject of much debate
whether the 2nd Amendment protects an individual
right to bear arms or a “collective right” 3
to allow the states to organize a national guard.
Although the United States Supreme Court de-
1 The 2nd Amendment to the United States Constitution says, “…
the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Incidentally, the meaning has always seemed clear to me.
2 http://www.crossroadsgunshows.com
3 Please don’t ask me to define a “collective right.” The notion of
a “collective right” is unintelligible to me. I suspect the concept was
originated by some collectivist minded anti-freedom thug.
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termined an individual right is indeed protected,
I wonder if those same 2nd Amendment cherishers
would have such warm feelings towards
the 2nd Amendment had the Supreme Court
sided with the collectivists? Moreover, there is
no doubt the courts will now march toward restricting
such individual right as they have with
all other individual rights “protected” by the
Constitution.
The 2nd Amendment, as with everything
else in the Constitution, is subject to interpretation,
limitation, expansion, or virtual nullification
by those nine political appointees on the
United States Supreme Court. How many of
your rights are protected by the Contracts Clause
or the Privileges and Immunities Clauses or the
9th Amendment? With a different group of nine
political appointees, those could have been important
sections of the Constitution in terms of
protecting freedom. Of course, the 2nd Amendment
could be repealed. I suspect many people
would not be inclined to turn their firearms into
the government for want of a right to bear arms.
I admit there is no escape from the necessity
of interpreting written words. Our language
and thoughts are not precise enough for perfect
communication. However, we should recognize
and admit the 2nd Amendment, as well as
the rest of the Constitution, is merely a collection
of words written on paper. By themselves,
they have no power to do anything at all. The
mindset of the people interpreting and enforcing
those words is what matters.
I would much prefer to live among liberty
minded people without any constitution or
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