Gun Owners Of America ( GAO ) Schools the "Constitutional Professor" on the 2nd Amend

[OriginalShroom]

This is too funny.. at least it would be if it weren't so damned shameful.

Open Letter - Gun Owners of America

An Open Letter to President Barack H. Obama

The official White House website includes a page1 which purports to describe key provisions of the United States Constitution. With respect to the Second Amendment, the complete description of the Second Amendment on the website is as follows:

"The Second Amendment gives citizens the right to bear arms." [Emphasis original.]

Even recognizing that the website attempts to present only a simple summary of provisions of the Constitution, the description is highly inaccurate, and should be immediately corrected so as not to mislead the American people as to the true nature and scope of the Second Amendment. There are two separate problems with the White House website.

Correction Number 1

The Second Amendment does not “give” citizens any rights. Rather, as the U.S. Supreme Court explained in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), the Second Amendment “codifies,”2 “protects,”3 and “secure”4 a right — rather than “grants,” “bestows,” or “gives” one.

Correction Number 2

Additionally, the description on the White House website completely ignores the fact that the Second Amendment protects not only the right to “bear” arms but also to “keep” them.

 

[Missouri_Mike]

The founders said God give us those rights.

 

[hazlnut]

Let's take a closer look at that SCOTUS decision, shall we….


District of Columbia v Heller

Justice Scalia

Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose: For example, concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment or state analogues. The Court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms. Miller’s holding that the sorts of weapons protected are those “in common use at the time” finds support in the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons.