Second Amendment: another viewpoint
The writer of a letter to the editor on the Second Amendment stated the Founding Fathers caused confusion by not adding the words “for the defense of themselves.”Then the writer mentions the right to bear arms in the Constitution is strictly in the military context and no where does it mention or suggest that would protect the unlimited rights of civilians to possess firearms. Then he says the purpose of the Second Amendment is to put down insurrection and puts the president in charge.
The writer got it wrong.
The Federal Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 2001 issued a landmark decision in U.S. vs. Emerson affirming the constitutional right of individuals to own a gun.
They also cited First, Fourth, Ninth and Tenth amendments as evidence of the interpretation of the Second Amendment.
In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized U.S. vs. Vendugo-Urquidez the rights belonging to the people are undeniably the rights of individuals.
In 2002, the Department of Justice adopted the correct interpretation of the Second Amendment by stating that it guarantees an individual right.
Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and George Mason affirmed the individual right in their writings.
Numerous Supreme Court decisions have affirmed the individual right to keep and bear arms.
U.S. vs. Logan (1892), Miller vs. Texas (1893), Robertson vs. Baldwin (1897) Maxwell vs. Dow (1900).
Tom Quattlebaum, Newnan
