Quote:
Originally Posted by Boreas
In an interview on the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour in 1991, Chief Justice Warren Burger said of the 2nd Amendment that it "has been the subject of one of the greatest pieces of fraud—I repeat the word 'fraud'—on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime."
In a speech the following year he said that "the Second Amendment doesn't guarantee the right to have firearms at all." Its purpose, Burger believed, was "to ensure that the 'state armies'—'the militia'—would be maintained for the defense of the state."
So, you see, this idea is far from new.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/b...nt-gun-rights#
John |
Earl Warren thought much the same; however, that's not the current view of the SC. I'd also argue that the founders also wouldn't think that the states themselves could possibly lose so much power viz-a-viz the federal government. Moreover, how do you interpret "militia" back in the late 18th? It certainly was nothing like our largely federally controlled National Guard of today.
PS. Sanford Levine's 1989 article "The Embarrassing Second Amendment" is a good read on the issue. BTW, It does support the anti-gun side.