Fox Nation’s Deep Dive gets into the current gun control proposals being put forward in Congress and state legislatures. Host James Freeman leads a discussion with Ray Kelly (the longest serving Commissioner in the history of the New York City Police Department), John Lott (President, Crime Prevention Research Center), and Giannon Caldwell (Fox News political analyst). They discuss how gun control laws, such as universal background checks, prevent poor minorities from being able to defend themselves. They also discussed assault weapon bans and Red Flag laws.
(Tuesday, January 8, 2019, noon to 12:33 PM)
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My 0-level argument on the 2A is the grammar of the sentence.
The independent clause, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,” is a complete idea that stands alone. It means exactly what it says, and no one can really argue another meaning for those words.
The nominative absolute, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,” is AT MOST an adverbial modifier.
In fact, a nominative absolute can have as little relation to the independent clause as a non sequitor and be a grammatically correct sentence: The rain in Spain falling mainly on the Plain, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Nominative absolutes may be rendered as adverbial clauses expressing time, cause, condition, concession, and some other types of information. They do not limit the meaning of the independent clause, but may add information that may relate to it.
In the case of the 2A, it is the RIGHT that makes feasible the Militia, NOT the other way around. It is NOT the existence of a militia that confers or creates the right.
In fact, the 2A does not establish the militia. The Militia Act of 1792 did. The most recent Militia Act of 1903 continues to require EVERY able-bodied male between 17 and 45 be a member on either the National Guard (the Organized Militia) or of the Unorganized (Reserve) Militia. In other words, every able-bodied male in the US is supposed to have a minimum competence with the standard military or near-military light firearms, and that has always been the case.
Universal Background Checks requires as a predicate a list of who owns which firearm. Without that enforcing a transfer requirement (the background check) is not enforceable. For the government to know where all the guns are is a frightening prospect.