Morning Constitutional

On my drive home from work this morning I hatched a plan to rant about the First Amendment. Back in my teen years my peer group had a lot of hippie envy. At least a certain number portrayed a certain level of nostalgia for the mystique surrounding the Summer of Love and the few years surrounding it. Some would even go so far as to actually wish for another Vietnam so they could protest just like the hippies did.

Congratulations! You got your wish, didn't you? And did you rush out and protest? I hope so. And what you probably found there was a Free Speech Zone. Not exactly what your hippie dreams had imagined things being like. But a vote for Jake will make it right for you. It will be an even First Amendment trade. We'll do away with Free Speech Zones and replace them with Free Press Zones. That's right, we'll protect the reporters from the public by erecting a fence around them far away from any news that might be happening. That way the fair and balanced approach might actually make sense.

But I got a constitutional surprise when I read news stating
Supreme Court to rule on right to keep handguns at home. So now you get a Second Amendment rant as well. It seems...

The Supreme Court set the stage Tuesday for a historic ruling on whether the fiercely debated 2nd Amendment protects the rights of Americans to keep handguns at home.

Can you believe we are even having this conversation? But there is a very legitimate problem at the heart of this issue. To interpret the actual meaning of the Second Amendment would require a fully functional understanding of legal English as used in the 18th century. Even then people disagreed on what it actually meant. For while the originator may have had one idea, it was amended and changed and debated to reflect the ideas of a number of people who may not have agreed at all.

But to me when something says I have the right to keep and bear arms I tend to think it means I have the right to keep and bear arms. Not only can I keep a handgun in my house, I can shoot things with it in my house. And shooting handguns inside the house can be a hell of a lot of fun. I could never deny someone that experience. Hell, play William Tell if you want. Go nuts.