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The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States - a royal smackdown

Kevin Baker writes at The Smallest Minority:

Refuting the "Irrefutable"
About a week ago, Robb over at Sharp as a Marble pointed to an op-ed by one Marc Rubin at the Examiner.com website that included this jaw-dropping quote:

In an earlier article about the 2nd amendment I proved beyond a shadow of any doubt that the 2nd amendment has nothing to do with an individual right to own a gun. And the facts are irrefutable.

Well, me being me, I saw that as a challenge and threw down the gauntlet.

And waited.

And waited.

And finally Sunday afternoon Marc Rubin responded via email:

Dear Kevin
Im(sic) sorry to have to tell you that you are simply wrong.The Constitution is not about what you or I or anyone believes. It is about what is says(sic) and what was intended by the people who wrote it especially when you know exactly what they intended. Nothing more.

The reality of this is that any state can pass any gun law they wish, banning, restricting, taxing, guns ammo, anything, and they do. That is irrefutable. Its(sic) there for all to see. The 2nd amendment does not prevent any state from passing any gun laws they wish. That is irrefutable because these laws are on the books. Plaxico Burress a former NY Giant wide receiver is going to jail because of a mandatory 3 year sentence for carrying a concealed weapon in New York City. The 2nd amendent(sic) is not saving him and his lawyers are not claiming his constitutional rights were violated. And the NRA isnt(sic) coming to his rescue either.

Yes my points are irrefutable because they are based on reality not belief or wish. The reality is the 2nd amendment has not stopped any local governemnt(sic), state, city, town or village from passing any gun law they wish. That doesnt(sic) sound like they think "shall not be infringed" applies to them. And thats(sic) because it doesnt(sic).

Regards
Marc Rubin

Apparently Mr. Rubin's keyboard doesn't have a functioning apostrophe. And his reality apparently shares very little in common with the one I live in.

Now, for those of you who have been long-standing readers of this blog much of what I will say here will be repetitious, but that's necessary. For those of you who are new or relatively recent, I hope you will bear with my "Überpost" style - this stuff takes more than 1500 words to hammer home, but I provide links to the source materials to allow you to fact-check me and not just take my "authoritative word" on what I assert.

Let us begin:

What follows is a long read, an amazing fisking and a very thorough analysis of Constitutional Law focusing on the 2nd Amendment. About 10K words but it sets out in Plain English what the 2nd really means and how it affects us... Posted by DaveH at July 21, 2009 9:31 AM | TrackBack