Tempus Fugit

The 2nd Amendment is being tested by the Supreme Court in the appeal of the judicial decision that overturned Washington D.C.’s handgun ban. The argument to overturn the decision is that the 2nd Amendment is only meant to protect the weapons of “militias.”

Here is the text of the 2nd 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.

The argument in favor of upholding the decision is that listing Miltias as a beneficiary of arms-bearing doesn’t get around the fact that it says “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Imagine if the 2nd Amendment said:

A well-educated electorate, being necessary to the democratic self-governance of a free State, the right of the people to keep and read books, shall not be infringed.

…and people argued that it meant that only registered voters should be allowed to own books.

I seriously fear for what might happen if the Supreme Court rules that the right to keep and bear arms is not an individual right, and that the government has the right to ban the possession of firearms by citizens.