How It's Used

"Leahy was preaching to a liberal choir, but Constitution worship is ecumenical. After a federal appeals court ruled recently that the Second Amendment protected an individual right to bear arms, Benjamin Wittes wrote an essay for The New Republic in which he suggested: 'Let's repeal the damn thing.'"

—Michael McGough, "No soldier shall be quartered ...: Why Constitution worship makes it impossible to edit the Bill of Rights," The Los Angeles Times, April 5, 2007.

"For decades, partisans on both sides of the nation's gun-control debate looked to the Supreme Court as some believers await a sign from the messiah: Someday, the justices would rule, and then, like it or not, we would know. Finally, firearms would be freely available as a basic American right, or they'd be strictly regulated, restricted to limited purposes.

"But here we are, less than six months after the high court ruled 5 to 4 that the District's ban on handgun possession violated the Constitution's Second Amendment, and the partisans are at their battle stations, arrayed on either shore of the Potomac like the Hatfields and McCoys of yore."

—Marc Fisher, "Don't Look for a Last Word in America's Gun Debate," The Washington Post, December 7, 2008, p. C01.

"Her [Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's] announcement came after a private meeting at Nazareth Regional High School, in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, with the parents and classmates of Nyasia Pryear-Yard, a 17-year-old who was shot in the face and killed at a club on Jan. 18.

"'There's a very big difference between making sure hunters can hunt in upstate New York, because it's part of our heritage and our history and the Second Amendment to our Constitution, and fighting against gun violence,' Ms. Gillibrand told reporters. 'And those are values and views that I've always held -- that we do need to fight against gun violence. We do need to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.' Jennifer Pryear, the killed girl's mother, said she knew of Ms. Gillibrand's background opposing gun control legislation but was hopeful after their conversation."

—David M. Halbfinger, "New Senator Vows to New Yorkers to Take Wider View on Gun Issues," The New York Times, February 10, 2009.

"A series of decisions followed that limited federal power to protect civil liberties. An 1886 decision, Presser v. Illinois, held that the Second Amendment didn't touch the states' powers to restrict weapons."

—Jess Bravin, "Interpretations: Rethinking Original Intent: The debate over the Constitution's meaning takes a surprising turn: a pivotal gun-rights case," The Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2009, p. W3.

"Some of the family members of the Virginia Tech victims have become powerful voices in the effort to close the gun-show loophole, reminding Congress that keeping guns from criminals and the mentally ill has nothing to do with the Second Amendment. Will Congress listen? We’ll wait and see. But in the meantime, the Virginia Tech victims have, in death, breathed new life into legislation that could save thousands of others—the 34 Americans murdered with guns every day."

—Michael R. Bloomberg, "The Decade in Review," Newsweek, November 16, 2009.

Links

Related on eAlmanac
The First Amendment
To Take the Fifth
The Ten Amendments that Form the Bill of Rights

Beyond eAlmanac
Wikipedia article on the Second Amendment
The National Rifle Association official Web site
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence official Web site