30 August 2010

Absolute truth? A 5-4 decision in the Supreme Court, of course

Rico says that, if you really wanna have some fun, suggest a Constitutional Convention to fix the Second Amendment. That's be a useful thing, since they're trying to pack the court with some anti-gub jurists again. (And just when we thought things were getting better, what with Heller and McDonald...)

It seems so simple, don't it? Take the existing why-can't-they-understand-plain-English sentence and remove the why-does-it-confuse-them phrase:

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.

What, you don't recognize that, without the excess commas?
That's because it was the version that was distributed to the states and ratified by them, which seems more like what was intended than the be-comma'd version that ended up being transcribed in the final document. (Proofreading, people; ever heard of it?)

So, what to fix? Take out that damned (and apparently so confusing) phrase, and leave just the meat of the thing:

The right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Simple, elegant, and cannot (even by the four Supreme dingbats) be misconstrued.

Oh, they'd try, but it'd surely be no more confusing than the First:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Imagine the Supremes trying to parse that one...

Of course, the real problem with holding a Constitutional Convention is that, once you take the lid off, the whole can of worms is now up for grabs: they'd want to put in stuff about religion, abortion, the works.
So, bad idea. Too damn bad, too; it'd beat the next hundred years of thrashing around in the Supreme Court, trying to figure out what "shall not be infringed" means... (Funny, We the People know, don't We?)

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