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As long as we're confessing things here.... I voted for Obama!!!
I also admit that I was much less informed back then. I was your typical low information voter.
I do take some blame there also, but here is the problem, the GOP and DNC neither seem to be able to trot out some viable good quality candidates, is this the best both Parties have, REALLY?
Getting real sick and tired of voting for the lesser of two evils after a while one begins to feel there is no lesser evil. We need to add NONE OF THE ABOVE to the ballets, then if more than 50% of voters vote that way they have to scrap the election results, fire both candidates and find two more, give em 3 months to tell us why them and then everyone votes again, do it until the American People can find someone that does not make them want to use an airsick bag while voting.
I do take some blame there also, but here is the problem, the GOP and DNC neither seem to be able to trot out some viable good quality candidates, is this the best both Parties have, REALLY?
Getting real sick and tired of voting for the lesser of two evils after a while one begins to feel there is no lesser evil. We need to add NONE OF THE ABOVE to the ballets, then if more than 50% of voters vote that way they have to scrap the election results, fire both candidates and find two more, give em 3 months to tell us why them and then everyone votes again, do it until the American People can find someone that does not make them want to use an airsick bag while voting.
I agree...
If not that, then at least a 3 party system. We need a viable 3rd party now more than ever.
The second amendment begins with... "A well regulated militia"
So what? The right to arms is not created by the 2nd Amendment; it is not given or granted to the citizen according to whatever qualifications or conditions you read into the 2nd Amendment. The individual, private citizen's right to arms is not in any manner dependent upon the 2nd Amendment or the Constitution for any aspect of its existence.
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Originally Posted by EinsteinsGhost
Spell it out for me, so I can look at your ideas... I suspect "well regulated militia" implies "well maintained guns" there as well.
The term "well regulated" when used to describe militia means properly functioning and in operational order and condition. It is an accolade that is assigned to a corps after they have demonstrated a high degree of order and discipline and expertness in military movements (see Federalist 29). It is contrasted by its antonym, "ill-regualted" which is assigned to militia / troops that are in substandard condition and unfit for battle.
The term "well regulated" has nothing to do with "regulations", the regimen of organization and control written by a legislative body. A thousand volumes of regulations could be imposed on militia but not one syllable would make them actually be "well regulated".
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Originally Posted by EinsteinsGhost
Additionally, the bill of rights does emphasize on well regulated militia. Why are so many, then, opposed to the idea of regulating gun ownership?
That is quite a jump. How do you get from the 2nd Amendment's directive for regulating militias (which we have seen is a mistaken conclusion on your part) to "regulating gun ownership" of people who are not in any organized, under the control of Congress militia?
A foundational rule of legal interpretation is, expressio unius est exclusio alterius ("the express mention of one thing excludes all others").
Article I Section 8, clause 16 of the Constitution states that Congress shall have the power; "To provide for organizing, arming and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress: "
What constitutional authority does Congress actually have to dictate to private citizens not enrolled in their state militia and not employed in the service of the United States, that only certain weapons are permitted by law? Congress can dictate all they want on which arms are acceptable for an enrolled militia member to keep ready and muster with, but private citizens are immune by direct exclusion from control by Congress. They are only directly addressed in the 2nd Amendment, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
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Originally Posted by EinsteinsGhost
Of course, it is spelling out the rights of the people. That is not the problem, but an understanding of: "a well-regulated militia".
The problem arises when people like you, who desire to usurp power and steal rights from the people interpret words that the right in no manner depend upon into having conditioning, qualifying and restrictive action on the rights of the people. You are precisely what the Federalists feared and what they warmed about in Federalist 84.
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Originally Posted by EinsteinsGhost
The second amendment was written in 1791. I'm sure they could have used "trained" instead of "regulated" if they wanted to limit the application.
Limit the application of what? Your fundamental flaw is reading the 2nd Amendment to be a permission slip for the citizen with the terms used to be defined to benefit the power of government to restrain citizen action. You are so pefectly backwards and so profoundly wrong I doubt your thoughts and beliefs on the Constitution can ever be reconciled with the truth.
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Originally Posted by EinsteinsGhost
I'm not the one begging for acceptance of different meanings to words.
Uhhhhh, yes you are. Not only that you are demanding we forget the foundational principles of the Constitution and violate every maxim of rights and their origin embraced and set-out by the founders / framers.
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