SHOOTS HOLES THE SIZE OF TED KENNEDY IN THE HISTORICAL REVISIONIST’S ARGUMENT!

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THE SECOND AMENDMENT: Preserving The Inalienable Right Of Individual Self-Protection
by David Barton
copyright: 2000
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DAVID BARTON begins his informative little booklet, THE SECOND AMENDMENT: Preserving The Inalienable Right Of Individual Self-Protection, by giving the reader a few excerpts from recent articles printed by mainstream American publications and statements made by prominent sources which display the reinterpretation of the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment by the anti-firearm crowd. He then, in just 58 pages of text (not including the Endnotes) absolutely blows their position to smithereens! I mean, it’s like shooting a sleeping flea on a dead dog with a howitzer. Barton’s booklet hits the bull’s-eye!
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“There is no individual right to bear arms in the Bill of Rights.”
~ USA TODAY; December 28, 1994.
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“The sale, manufacture, and possession of handguns ought to be banned ... We do not believe the 2nd Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep them.”
~ The Washington Post; November 5, 1999.
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“There is no reason for anyone in the country, for anyone except a police officer or a military person, to buy, to own, to have, to use, a handgun.”
~ Michael Gartner; former president of NBC News, January 16, 1992.
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“Except for lawful police and military purposes, the possession of weapons by individuals is not constitutionally protected.”
~ The ACLU; policy statement #47, 1996.
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The above are just a few samples of the modern misinterpretations and/or outright deceptions that David Barton lays to waste in this compact but information-loaded and solidly documented booklet. He immediately reminds the reader that “a common error in constitutional interpretation is the failure to examine a document according to its original meaning” and he then gives several quotations from America’s Founding Fathers admonishing their contemporaries, and future generations, to do just that when attempting to understand any constitutional passage.
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“On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”
~ President Thomas Jefferson; June 12, 1823.
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Barton, in his customary fashion, proceeds to examine primary source material from our Founding Era with respect to Early Legal Commentaries; Views Of The Founding Fathers; Early Legislative Acts (including the Founders’ definition of the “militia”); and State Constitutions.
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“Even if it was practicable, would it be wise to disarm the good before the wicked cease from troubling?”
~ John Jay; Original Chief-Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, April 15, 1818.
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“To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.”
~ Richard Henry Lee; Signer of The Declaration & Framer of the Second Amendment in the First Congress.
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“And what country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.”
~ Thomas Jefferson; U.S. President & signer of The Declaration, June 1776.
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“A free people ought ... to be armed.”
~ George Washington; some dead guy, January 8, 1790.
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There are bigger books out there that address the Second Amendment debate in greater detail, but if all you’re looking for is a quick but effective, battle-tested resource to give you the means and the confidence to annihilate your local Lib in a “Gun Rights” debate, DAVID BARTON’s booklet, THE SECOND AMENDMENT, provides all the ammunition you’ll need.
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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