Those darn commas. I have read a great deal on the subject of what was intended by those who drafted the Bill O Rights and the sentiments in 1787 to 1789 when those words were crafted. Without a doubt there was great fear that some president would attain by whatever means TOO much executive power and then begin to act like a King. (hmmm, sounds familiar)
It was intended to give power to the people. While some scholars can argue that it was meant to mean: an army has a right to bear arms... that even, on its face, is absurd logic. This argument implies there could be an army withOUT guns... Nope. No sense there.
Those who drafted this Bill Of Rights meant that between commas phrase as it stands---"the right of the people to keep and bear arms". You need to read Hamiliton's, Franklin's etc accounts of what was happening THEN and their letters THEN. The case is so clear. The review and arguments about what was meant by this RIGHT is of NO value unless you read more about the men who drafted the Bill Of Rights.
And by the way, it took two years for the states to ratify the Bill-O-Rights, not until 1791 were they ratified. So there was NOT a unanimous agreement on all aspects of either the Constitution or the Bill-O-Rights. There were heated differences of opinion. And the founding fathers, contrary to popular lore, did NOT see eye to eye and agree on all things and certainly the PEOPLE in 1780's also disagreed on many key issues... this was NOT a perfect Union... This was NOT a utopia where everyone believed the same things. Oh yea and there were two dominant parties Federalists and the Republican-Democratic Party... Repubs and Dems were on the same side.... not much has really changed in so many ways. But above all, they did not want tyranny or excessive executive power. They wanted to make sure the people had the ability to keep a tyrant from gaining too much power and subjecting them to their whims... The People were supposed to have the right to have and bear arms to guard against a central government's abuse of power. Simple.
Last edited by Yogi 000; 03/18/08 04:04 PM.
