History instructor John E. Sharp said it, I believe it, that settles it.
Actually, it was Handgun Control, Inc. board member and Violence Policy Center adviser Carl Bogus who said it and Sharp didn't credit him. Academics: Is it any wonder we love them so?
And it was Dave Kopel who debunked it:
In my own article, "The Second Amendment in the 19th Century," I detail why Bogus's claims in his article on American history are very seriously mistaken. The problem is that his assertions are based on a highly selective and implausible reading of history. For example, Bogus argues that the Second Amendment was entirely the creation of southerners who wanted strong militias to suppress slave revolts; yet he does not even mention that during the constitutional-ratification debates, the first call for an individual-arms right came from the Pennsylvania dissenters. Similarly, Bogus omits the fact that Sam Adams of Massachusetts, who detested slavery, proposed an arms right at the Massachusetts ratifying convention.Back to Sharp:
Discussing James Madison's draft of the Second Amendment, Bogus writes, "We do not know why Madison chose to draft his provisions precisely this way. He did not explain his thinking in any speech or letter that has come to light." Actually, Madison did explain his drafting choices. The Founding Father's explanation makes it clear that he viewed the 1689 English Declaration of Rights as protecting an individual right to arms, and Madison wanted the American arms right to be broader and more protective of individual rights than was the English version.
I have yet to hear a conversation informed by this context: When and for what reasons was the Second Amendment drafted?I wouldn't even know where to begin, legal and scholarly sources are just so damned abundant. Maybe start here and then spend several years keeping your eyes open and your mouth shut. Or here. Or read the Federalist Papers. Or read an amicus brief or two filed in support of Heller or McDonald. Or, you know, use Google...
Unbelievable, that this character presumes to teach and to write about that which he knows nothing. It's nothing short of malpractice. With this appalling admitted level of ignorance and evident lack of curiosity, this guy doesn't even belong in the classroom as a student until he completes some required prerequisites.
[Via Brian Bowman]
1 comment:
http://www.guncite.com/gc2ndpur.html
Here is what Madison said in Federalist 46:
"Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments,to which the people are attached, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. And it is not certain, that with this aid alone they would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to possess the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who could collect the national will and direct the national force, and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these governments, and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest assurance, that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be speedily overturned in spite of the legions which surround it."
Here is Hamilton in Federalist 28:
"[T]he people, without exaggeration, may be said to be entirely the masters of their own fate. Power being almost always the rival of power, the general government will at all times stand ready to check the usurpations of the state governments, and these will have the same disposition towards the general government. The people by throwing themselves into either scale, will infallibly make it preponderate. If their rights are invaded by either, they can make use of the other as the instrument of redress. How wise will it be in them by cherishing the union to preserve to themselves an advantage which can never be too highly prized!"
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