[118846] in Cypherpunks
Inferno: The Constitution & Gun Rights: It's bigger than the 2nd alone (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jim Choate)
Fri Oct 8 23:41:30 1999
From: Jim Choate <ravage@einstein.ssz.com>
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From: Jim Choate <ravage@ssz.com>
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Subject: Inferno: The Constitution & Gun Rights: It's bigger than the 2nd alone
To: hell@einstein.ssz.com (The Club Inferno)
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 22:36:02 -0500 (CDT)
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The Constitution & Gun Rights: It's bigger than the 2nd alone
This country is going through a crisis of civil liberties and a
fundamental loss of faith in the tenets of democracy. It is becoming
more fascist (ie public management of private property) on a daily
basis. In the near future it will become completely socialist (ie
public management of public property and elimination of private
property) in the name of the greater good. The belief that the needs
of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the individual is in
direct conflict with both the spirit and words of the Constitution.
Legislative, legal, and executive branch decisions and actions speak
to this on a daily basis. One of the most controversial topics is the
private ownership of weapons and the duty of the government to
regulate the same. The current discussion on both sides is limited
solely to the 2nd Amendment. Unfortunately this is a stillborn
position because it misses fundamental issues and questions. To
address those I have listed each of the relevant sections of the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Perusal of these make it clear
that the right of the individual to own and bear arms with no
interference or regulation is a fundamental right of every American. This
right is justified by a long history of abuse by political systems of the
individual as well as a continous sequence of physical assaults on the
citizenry.
It is worth making special note that the Presidential claim to
executive privilige regarding the use of military forces without
Congressional permission is unconstitutional (see Article II). The
Constitution clearly states the President is the commander in chief of
the armed forces only after they have been called into action. And
only Congress may call them into action. The President of the United
States is not in the chain of command of the military forces without
specific authorization from Congress. Until such time as that is given
only Congress has the authority to direct and organize military
activities.
Amendment 2, 4, & 9 provide in and of themselves sufficient grounds to
find any federal involvement in the purchase, possession, or operation
of a weapon to be unconstitutional.
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the
common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish
this Constitution for the United States of America.
Article I
Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes,
duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the
common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all
duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United
States;
To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules
concerning captures on land and water;
To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use
shall be for a longer term than two years;
To provide and maintain a navy;
To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval
forces;
To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the
union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and
for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of
the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the
appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia
according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
No state shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of
tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any
agreement or compact with another state, or with a foreign power, or
engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as
will not admit of delay.
Article II
Section 2. The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and
Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states,
when called into the actual service of the United States; he may
require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of
the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of
their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves
and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of
impeachment.
Article IV
Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every state in this
union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them
against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the
executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic
violence.
THE BILL OF RIGHTS
The Conventions of a number of the States having, at the time of
adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent
misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and
restrictive clauses should be added, and as extending the ground of
public confidence in the Government will best insure the beneficent
ends of its institution;
Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America, in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both Houses
concurring, that the following articles be proposed to the
Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution
of the United States; all or any of which articles, when ratified by
three-fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and
purposes as part of the said Constitution, namely:
Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free
state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be
infringed.
Amendment III
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without
the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be
prescribed by law.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers,
and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be
violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause,
supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the
place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states
respectively, or to the people.
____________________________________________________________________
The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full
of passionate intensity.
W.B. Yeats
The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate
Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage@ssz.com
www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087
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