I'm curious of your opinion (and everyone else's) why the second amendment included the language "shall not be infringed", particularly in comparison to the other 9 amendments of the bill of rights. What did the founders mean in adding this language to only this one right? How did they intend that to be different from the others?
I strongly recommend the Scalia opinion in Heller to anyone interested in the history and meaning of the Second Amendment. (I'm sure many here already have; it is exceedingly interesting reading.)
Scalia says that "Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited". He states that the Heller opinion "should not be taken to cast doubt" on longstanding reasonable regulations, including with respect to the "conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms."
The peculiar wording of the Amendment, using the word "infringed", doesn't make the gun right special in terms of its susceptibility to reasonable regulation. Such regulation is, IMO, reasonable if it satisfies two basic requirements - first, the regulation must be efficacious, and second, the regulation cannot effectively deny the right to keep and bear arms for the
Constitutionally protected purpose enunciated in Heller - self-defense. That's why the D.C. law was struck down - requiring that a gun be kept unloaded or locked in the home defeats the purpose for which the Constitutional right exists. Self-defense.
But in the public space, time, place and manner restrictions on Constitutional rights are common and lawful. Guns are no different. And that's entirely consistent with the dictionary definition of "infringe" - to defeat or invalidate. Reasonable regulation doesn't defeat or invalidate the gun right. One may have to register one's pistol, or obey local law when carrying in public, but that doesn't prevent one from acquiring and using it when needed to protect hearth and home.
The subject at hand is the parading or concealment of weaponry in the public square. Philly's laws on such matters have always been much different than northern Michigan's. And that local prerogative is as it should be, and should remain.