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Originally Posted by zukiphile
I am sympathetic to that reading, but let's recognize that "shall not be infringed" leaves room for argument and that the position you state and I like isn't current law. It's whether the explanation of our position coheres that should give the position weight rather than the credentials of the the people advancing it. Both we and Chemerinsky are entitled to our critiques and should have those critiques evaluated on their merits.
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Yes, I understand. And I know that Justice Scalia said in the
Heller decision that the RKBA is not unlimited (or something to that effect). And I know that my fellow moderator, Frank Ettin, has pointed out that, historically, all the rights in the Bill of Rights have been subject to reasonable regulation.
Justice Scalia was constrained by having to write an opinion that was acceptable to Justice Kennedy in order to keep the majority. I am not so constrained. My view is that the 2A should be interpreted as meaning what it meant to the old dudes who wrote it, and history and context make it abundantly plain that what they intended was nothing less than that the law-abiding populace would NEVER be disarmed. In fact, this was considered to be so obvious that the Federalists among the Founders didn't think a Second Amendment (among the other rights in the Bill of Rights) was even needed, because it was so obvious (to them) that the Constitution didn't give the government any power to disarm the People. We got a Bill of Rights only because some states rebelled, and agreed to ratify the new constitution only with the promise that a Bill of Rights would be added.
So now we need to determine what "shall not be infringed" meant to the Framers. To me, in 2021, it means "shall not be limited or regulated." A better clue might be Samuel Johnson's Dictionary from 1785.
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To Infringe:
1. To violate; to break laws or contracts.
2. To destroy; to hinder.
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Infringement:
Breach; violation.
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Seems pretty clear to me, but I'm not a lawyer, I'm just a wordsmith.