Auditorium Shores
Second Amendment Unambiguous
RECEIVED Tue., Feb. 17, 2009
Dear Editor,
In "Page Two" (Feb. 13) Louis Black declares, "The Second Amendment as written offers no absolute guarantee of the right to bear arms." This bizarre belief in the myth of Second Amendment ambiguity continues to baffle me. There is nothing the least bit ambiguous or unclear about the statement "… the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." You can argue over the meaning and extent of "infringed,” but the amendment itself is perfectly clear.
Black bases this opinion on his belief that "basically militias no longer exist." Title 10, Subtitle A, Part I, Chapter 13, Section 311 of the U.S. Code disagrees: "(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard." Able-bodied males 17-45 are members of the unorganized militia whether they like it or not. It's not some nebulous intellectual exercise, it's federal law, and Section 332 gives the president the authority to call up the militia if he "considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State … by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings.”
In "Page Two" (Feb. 13) Louis Black declares, "The Second Amendment as written offers no absolute guarantee of the right to bear arms." This bizarre belief in the myth of Second Amendment ambiguity continues to baffle me. There is nothing the least bit ambiguous or unclear about the statement "… the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." You can argue over the meaning and extent of "infringed,” but the amendment itself is perfectly clear.
Black bases this opinion on his belief that "basically militias no longer exist." Title 10, Subtitle A, Part I, Chapter 13, Section 311 of the U.S. Code disagrees: "(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard." Able-bodied males 17-45 are members of the unorganized militia whether they like it or not. It's not some nebulous intellectual exercise, it's federal law, and Section 332 gives the president the authority to call up the militia if he "considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State … by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings.”
Jason Meador