From his fairly recent book, Lethal Logic, Dennis A Henigan, Vice President for Law and Policy at the Brady Campaign, dedicated an entire chapter to the 2nd Amendment.
He opens the chapter with a wonderful description of what I suppose is the origin of the famous statement, "from my cold dead hands." Charlston Heston is addressing the 2000 NRA Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. To the ecstatic audience, holding a colonial musket above his head, he shouted what would become the NRA battle cry. Or perhaps he was repeating an already accepted statement, I don't know. Here's the youtube video I'm sure you've all seen.
I really can't believe anyone takes that rhetoric seriously. The self-aggrandizing talk which exaggerates the "peril" in order to all the more exaggerate our role in facing it, to me, is embarrassing. "When freedom shivers in the shadow of true peril, it's always the patriots who first hear the call." That sounds like a joke. The only thing funnier is that some people buy into it.
In Lethal Logic, Henigan maps out the history of the "militia" interpretation of the 2nd Amendment.
"Prodigious historical research," he writes on page 191, "into the origins of the 2nd Amendment confirms that it was intended to address the distribution of military power in society, not the need to have guns for self-defense or other private purposes."
"Indeed, the judicial consensus on the meaning of the amendment had grown so strong that. in 1991, former Chief Justice Warren Berger - a conservative jurist who also was a gun owner - accused the NRA of perpetrating a "fraud on the American public" by insisting that the right to be armed existed apart from service in an organized militia."
And on page 193, "Heller in fact, is the new paradox of the gun control debate. In Heller, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court engaged in an unprincipled abuse of judicial power in the pursuit of an ideological objective. Not quite Bush v. Gore, but close."
Recently we've had occasion to hear these same points from another lawyer, a well known law professor actually, Cass Sunstein. And let's not forget Laci the Dog, who's covered the same material, albeit in a more controversial way.
What's your opinion? Are Henigan and Sunstein completely wrong? Is it not possible to disagree with their interpretation without denigrating them as either liars or idiots? Are they not educated men trying to share their ideas just like everybody else?
Please leave a comment.
"Are Henigan and Sunstein completely wrong?"
ReplyDeleteYes, Laci too!
"Are they not educated men trying to share their ideas just like everybody else?"
They're educated, but they are dishonest in their pushing of a incorrect agenda.
Henigen works for the Brady Campaign.
ReplyDeleteDidn't you recently do a post on how the Brady Campaign applauded the Heller ruling?
They had to put a positive spin on the outcome rather than admit defeat.
The BC filed an amicus brief in defense of the gun ban.
This is spin.
Nothing more, nothing less.
With this complex view of the second, whose 'right to keep and bear arms' is it that 'shall not be infringed'?
ReplyDeletewhat I suppose is the origin of the famous statement, "from my cold dead hands." Charlston Heston is addressing the 2000 NRA Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.
ReplyDeleteThe phrase is much older than 2000. I remember seeing it on a bumper sticker on the back of a vehicle in the movie "Red Dawn" which is circa 1984 I believe.
Here's your hero, Henigan in action!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.examiner.com/x-2581-St-Louis-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m7d1-Brady-Campaign-acknowledges-proposed-gun-laws-violate-due-process-doesnt-care
We can discuss this in length if this doesn't initially take the wind out of your sails.
Wow, you managed to find a couple of lawyers who disagree with the Supreme Court!
ReplyDeleteNicely done!
Hint: There's a reason it's called the Supreme Court.
"Indeed, the judicial consensus on the meaning of the amendment had grown so strong that. in 1991, former Chief Justice Warren Berger - a conservative jurist who also was a gun owner - accused the NRA of perpetrating a "fraud on the American public" by insisting that the right to be armed existed apart from service in an organized militia."
ReplyDeleteSee, even Henigan admits it. That judicial concensus "grew" strong. As in that opinion was not always so but instead had to grow or develop. Yet abother modern quote, 1991, I'm not real impressed. Got anything before the 1970's Henigan?
Sevesteen, I think you know better than I do, but the idea must be that the right pertained to those who were responsible for manning a militia which was needed in the 18th century but gradually over some decades became completely anachronistic.
ReplyDeleteThis idea touches on what FWM is asking. When exactly did this idea become operative and why is there no reference before 1970. I don't know, maybe there is. I'll keep reading and let you know what I discover.
the right pertained to those who were responsible for manning a militia which was needed in the 18th century but gradually over some decades became completely anachronistic.
ReplyDeleteThat would mean white men capable of participating in a battle. Pretty much every other right that was originally limited to white men has been expanded to all adult citizens-would the second be an exception?
And the idea of "no reference" is at best deceptive--several references have been repeatedly pointed out here.
The 2nd Amendment is exactly as it reads, and the government cannot infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms.
ReplyDeleteSo people, being part of the militia, you had best get out there and get your arms to keep and bear - you do know that only you will "secure a free state", not the political hacks and the government workers, not all the King's horses, nor all the King's men can put Humpty Dumpty together again... Doesn't anyone study the Revolutionary War anymore?
MikeB,
ReplyDeleteI am thinking you are about a dozen years older than I. Even though you have said that you really didn't become anti-gun until more recently and may not have followed the argument that closely in the past, I want you to think about it growing up. When did you start believing it was a collective right? When did yo start hearing about a collective right? In school when you were taught the Bill of Rights, I am sure even in the Peoples Republic of New Jersey they just routinely glanced over the 2nd as an individual right like all of the others.
I have found American History and Civics text books at auctions and yard sales. I always look at their section on the Bill of Rights and I have yet to find any that even mention the collective rights notion published before the early 1990's. Even my nephew's current high school history text says that there is a debate as to whether or not this one right out of all of them is reserved to the state as a right to have a militia while the others are rights of individuals.
There is nothing, I repeat NOTHING written, published recorded or otherwise prior to the mid 1970's that promote the idea of a collective right. Even the gun control Holy Grail, Miller, did not address it. Laci and other anti's are more than happy to say that it is a 70 year old precedent but obviously it was not. They can point to all kinds of analysis, opinions and references to Miller promoting this concocted notion but none were published before the late 70's. When Miller was published, nothing was written about a "collective right" for 40 years. Why is that?
Hope you'll listen to my interview of Dennis Henigan here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.iotconline.com/radio/aview/TAV%20Hennegan_Nov13.mp3
I think he has undoubtedly set a new Guinness World Indoor Record for saying the most idiotic, unConstitutional things on a one-hour radio show, mine. In fact, I think he has retired the title. Comments welcome.
John Lofton, Editor TheAmericanView.com
Communications Director, Institute on the Constitution
Recovering Republican
JLof@aol.com
John, I can't thank you enough for sending that link to the Henigan interview. It was absolutely fascinating.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think you for coming here to comment, someone as well-known as yourself. You honor me.