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Judge Silberman on the Right to Bear Arms
Now that Tommy’s got us going at it–see his post below–I thought folks here at Ricochet might enjoy this excerpt from my Uncommon Knowledge interview with Judge Laurence Silberman. Judge Silberman wrote the decision declaring unconstitutional the District of Columbia’s handgun ban–and reopening serious debate over the right to bear arms.
This excerpt lasts just five minutes, but Judge Silberman sketches out all the main issues. (He’s just wonderfully succinct and engaging.)
The Founding Fathers might have written the Second Amendment as follows: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of theMilitia to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” They were lawyers after all. The right is specifically reserved to the People . Case closed.
Beautifully put.
I second Peter on that. I never heard that argument before. I’ll add it to my arsenal.
That part is easy, but like the other thread asks: Is this right unlimited? If not, then how will we decide such limits?
Every right in the Bill of Rights are endowed and exercised by individuals. There is no such thing as a right to be execised only by a collective group as I understand it.
The gun-grabbers militia-only rights argument fails on that test. Every individual is the militia. Sovereign, too.
Peter, I would like to request a post from you on the origins of UK and how it got started. I only started watching maybe 3-4 years ago.