Columbia Vs Heller

This whole thing needs to be said one more time...

Sometime next year, The US Supreme Court will hear a case, District of Columbia v. Heller, No. 07-290, in which it will need to decide whether or not The 2nd Amendment protects (not grants or bestows) an individual right to keep and bear arms.

At face value, the amendment does state, in part, that the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. That would make it easy enough for most people, but through the years, there has been an attempt to distort this into some sort of odd "states' right to form a militia." Every other right protected by The Bill of Rights, stated as a "right of the people" or "right of persons" all have never even been challenged in regards to being "states' rights."

In short, "the people" in The 2nd Amendment should clearly mean the same as "the people" in the other ones. If it doesn't, then the meanings of words are not concrete and solid, and any right that you think you have may be dis-interpreted into some sort of collective agglutinative right of "the state." If "the people" means something different for each amendment, then none of the words in The Constitution really mean anything at all. 

If we can't agree on what words mean, and there are some who can't, then shouldn't we at least agree that a word means the same thing as itself? Should not "the people" mean, well, "the people???"

Aside from that, and there are far better writers than myself who can expound on that further, I would like to remind everyone that the constitutions of no less than 44 states mention, a bit more clearly than The 2nd Amendment, that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual one. So  while we should, and can, and will defend The 2nd Amendment, we are reminded that our states' constitutions also protect that right.

Michigan Constitution Article I, Section 6

Every person has a right to keep and bear arms for the defense of himself and the state.

I personally like Maine's: 

Maine Constitution Article 1, Section 16

Every citizen has a right to keep and bear arms and this right shall never be questioned.

The Second Amendment Foundation has an excellent list of each states' similar provisions online. I encourage you to read them all. 

Watch Columbia Vs Heller closely, and keep your powder dry. You might need it for the defense of yourself and your state.

-Weapon M