As the Founding Fathers struggled to create the Constitution and what became the Bill of Rights, there were fifty-five brilliant minds at work. We can only stand in awe of their accomplishments even if we can’t always understand their meaning.
Guns, gun ownership, The Second Amendment, mass murder of small children and innocent bystanders have recently moved to the center of our national discourse and we could sure use some wisdom from our Founding Fathers right now.
We don’t know a great deal about their reasons for writing The Second Amendment the way that they did. It is fair to say that the English language is filled with opportunities for misinterpretation of single words so we should not be surprised when a sentence made up of twenty seven words and three commas generates the sort of confusion we are seeing today. Let me start by quoting The Second Amendment:
“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.”
As we think about the time in which our Founding Fathers were writing these important words, we should remember that the Articles of Confederation had proven to be deficient on a variety of fronts and the Constitution was seeking to form “a more perfect union.” The question of a strong central government vs. the rights of the various states was the topic of the day. Indeed, the formation of the central government defined by the Constitution was widely thought to be rife with the potential for tyranny so the states needed some means to protect their sovereignty against encroachments from the new government.
With that as my basis, let me offer one possible interpretation of The Second Amendment for discussion. I have taken the liberty of removing the three commas and inserting some connecting text to make the sentence read as follows:
A well regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free State so the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.
Again, this is one plausible interpretation and I am sure there are more, but it would be productive to spend some time understanding what our Founding Fathers had in mind before we start passing laws which could well violate their intent.
The Sausage Grinder is Broken – Will you help to fix it?
Comment here or send and email: abrokensausagegrinder@comcast.net
More via Facebook: A Broken Sausage Grinder
More via Twitter: Hank Thomas