Shooting the Gordian Gun

Sometimes recently the Supreme Court heard arguments concerning the District of Columbia's hand-gun control laws. Swirling about this event were many arguments, many familiar arguments, about Constitutional Rights and whether the Second Amendment of said document guarantees the freedom to bear arms only in the context of a defensive militia, or in any circumstance whatsoever, or somewhere in between. Such scholastic arguments seem to be deeply satisfying to some people, but I prefer to avoid them myself.

But, in a recent moment of inspiration, I believe I found the answer that will untie the Gordian Second-Amendment Knot and satisfy those in favor of gun control laws, those not in favor of gun control laws, and Constitutional (so called) strict constructionists all at the same time.

Namely

There shall be no laws made in the US that restrict the right of the people to bear arms that were available when the US Constitution was written.

Thus, while ruling out automatic and semi-automatic weapons, rifles, revolvers, shotguns, and Saturday-night specials, it does allow law-abiding citizens the right to flint-lock pistols, blunderbusses, and muskets–but with no rifling in the barrel please, since that was invented about 1800.

Posted on March 31, 2008 at 15.51 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Current Events, Eureka!

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