Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: Unreal, Canadian being fully prosecuted, for using a home invader's gun against him... [View all]gejohnston
(17,502 posts)basic civics that everyone should learn in middle school and to be a citizen. The BoR are a set of negative rights, meaning it restricts the State, not give anything to individuals since the Founders were big on Natural Law Theory. Also, group or collective rights was not a concept to them.
That means each individual has those right for simply existing. What it actually means is that the general population needs to be armed for a well-functioning militia to exist. That sentence structure was common back then.
That is also why Congress and FDR, who signed the National Firearms Act, put a tax and registration for automatic weapons instead of banning them outright. They believed a ban would be struck down. The only challenge to the NFA was about a "sawed off shotgun", which the court said had no military value.
http://www.guncite.com/gc2ndana.html
http://www2.law.ucla.edu/volokh/common.htm
http://www.guncite.com/gc2ndmea.html
BTW, bans on less than lethal weapons like tasers have been overturned because they are protected "arms".
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/05/01/new-jersey-stun-gun-ban-struck-down-by-consent-order-new-orleans-ban-repealed/?utm_term=.95f650354b94
Also, if it were about State power, it would be part of Article 1, section 8, clause 15