National Right to Carry

[Ed 2001 SS]

Originally Posted by jeff221

The 2nd amendment doesn't mention felon's, so if you were to be a strict constutionalist, you'd think that a felon should have the right to "bare arms"

Rules are read "into" the Constitution all the time. If not, you'd run into situations like the following hypothetical: How would a Textualist explain the rationale behind not allowing the President (via an executive order) to ban criticism of his administration in the media, or a State or Local government to dictate what political opinions can or cannot be expressed on TV?

We all know that nether the President, nor state or local administrations aren't allowed to affect freedom of the press or freedom of speech, yet the First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press . . . ." Why are we equating Congress with all these other political entities?

Oh, and Larry the Cable guy had a pretty funny bare arms joke.

[nightraider]

Originally Posted by jeff221

Gay Marriage isn't recognized across states... Should that be federally mandated too?

It might be, they tried to amend the Constitution recently for that. Even if this gets passed, the 2nd Amendment in the Constitution would prevent any banning. With a conservative biased Supreme Court right now, we are in good hands.

[nightraider]

Originally Posted by jeff221

The 2nd amendment doesn't mention felon's, so if you were to be a strict constutionalist, you'd think that a felon should have the right to "bare arms"

You can't purchase or own any firearms after being a felon. You also can't vote. You pretty much give up a huge portion of your rights after being convicted of a felony.