The predicate clause makes the right unclear in the context of the individual right to ordinary self defense. It took 200 years for the SCOTUS to find such an individual right. It is not merely a question of misinterpretation - the language itself has always been flawed.
You are taking the position that I believe Eugene Volokh formerly held. After further study, Volokh concluded that the language is not flawed if we read it in the historical context of other
legal documents of the period. Volokh completely abandoned the position that the language was flawed. He takes the position that liberals are historically ignorant--or worse still, contemptuous of history. (For example, liberals are contemptuous of the Federalist Papers--which
are important to understanding original intent.)
See my post #52 on this thread for further discussion of Volokh's revelations. (See also his video ad for Prager U when you get a chance.)
By the same token, Volokh would say that the individual right to self defense was not
found by the SCOTUS, whether only recently or otherwise.
In addition to the Federalist Papers, the Declaration of Independence is germane since it talks about
unalienable rights--among which is the
right to life and by an inarguably proper extension, the
right to self defense. This right obviously overlaps with the
right to liberty and by another inarguably proper extension, the
right of the citizenry to use arms to oppose tyrannical abuse of power.If we were to say that the Founders/Framers never intended the citizenry to be able to resist the government by force of arms, Thomas Jefferson (who was no Federalist) would scream at us for being complete fools. Speaking of fools, the people who say that the 2nd Amendment is antiquated because it was dealing with single-shot muskets do not know what they are talking about. Whether liberals like it or not, our Founders/Framers envisioned the citizenry as possessing the same kinds of arms as a standing army--for the reasons cited above. (For that matter, there were repeating firearms, even in 1776, but they were too expensive until Madison and Monroe encouraged mass production techniques
for the expressed purpose of making the best possible firearms widely available to private citizens.)
We've had too much of the infringement crap already. Please pardon me for being suspicious of gun registration. Twentieth Century tyrants
have used gun registration records against their citizens.
