The hottest takes always seem to be reserved for guns, gun rights, and the Second Amendment; consider that President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the ATF couldn’t even define what an assault weapon was before Congress.
Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight has teamed up with ABC News for “Rethinking Gun Violence,” a series “examining the level of gun violence in the U.S. — and what can be done about it.” You can see the video over at FiveThirtyEight, but the argument is that federal courts used to believe that the Second Amendment “protected the rights of state militias to bear arms — not the rights of individual Americans. That all changed in 2008 with the stroke of a pen.”
The Second Amendment didn’t protect your right to own a gun until 2008: https://t.co/1UTUmuSIv1
— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) October 30, 2021
lol
— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) October 30, 2021
Here’s The Reload’s Stephen Gutowski:
This is honestly embarrassing. I've seen more balanced and serious Second Amendment analysis from literal gun-control groups. I laughed when the reporter puzzled through who exactly has the right to keep and bear arms. If only the Constitution directly told us that part! https://t.co/8NzqWA2A6D
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) October 30, 2021
This report couldn't even get the basics right. 8 states have may-issue concealed-carry laws, not 6. Miller said the sawed off shotguns weren't protected under the Second Amendment because they weren't useful in militia service, not because the plaintiffs weren't in the militia.
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) October 30, 2021
Did the people putting together this report ever wonder why the Supreme Court didn't take a Second Amendment case until 1939? Could it be because the federal government didn't have gun laws until that decade? But, how could that be if everyone agreed gun rights weren't real? 🤔
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) October 30, 2021
This piece gives literally zero credence to anything but the furthest left view of the Second Amendment and the history of the gun-rights movement in America. It doesn't even feign an attempt at examining a different point of view.
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) October 30, 2021
So it’s perfect for ABC News.
There's a reason the framework the Supreme Court adopted in Heller is called the standard model. Despite what this video would like you to believe, it's not just Federalist Society accolades who agree the Second Amendment is reserved to The People just like the 4th or 1st.
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) October 30, 2021
There is a way to discuss the view that the Second Amendment merely protected a collective right and was effectively meaningless, which was a common view in the 20th century and is still held by some today, and balance it against the current prevailing view. This piece isn't it.
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) October 30, 2021
"I ask, who is the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers"
George Mason, the Virginia Ratification Convention
— DaveinTexas (@DaveinTexas) October 30, 2021
No, no, no.
The Secobd Amendment hadn't been interpreted by the Supreme Court to denote such a right until then.
It either protected that right all along or it still doesn't. We didn't have a ruling on that until '08.
Indeterminacy is a concept I'd think 538 would grasp.
— Burt Likko (@burtlikko) October 30, 2021
https://twitter.com/PebblesFluff/status/1454313953555738629
Except it did … but go on.
— Stranded Viking (@NotThatLars) October 30, 2021
— Rogue Penguin (@Rogue_40) October 30, 2021
The worst of takes.
— Rando mind/your/own/business (@RandomFLDude) October 30, 2021
This is embarrassingly idiotic. You should delete it.
— J.G. Petruna (@jgpetruna) October 30, 2021
Wrong. The Second Amendment has always protected the right of a citizen to own a gun. Heller recognized an existing right. It did not create one.
— Brady Howell (@bd_howell) October 30, 2021
Um… yes it did. Read a book.
— Jacob Airey (@realJacobAirey) October 30, 2021
https://twitter.com/founding_ideals/status/1454473831050055682
https://twitter.com/zugzwang8768/status/1454252866592460802
— Mad Scientist (@Angry_PhD) October 30, 2021
— SGA (@SGA_FLA) October 30, 2021
https://twitter.com/attitudeengine1/status/1454442310234673153
https://twitter.com/dysinger/status/1454487528795344904
https://twitter.com/thosearepeople/status/1454462104413491206
https://twitter.com/cheezedawgb/status/1454284209023905793
Again, of course ABC News would eat this up as part of its series examining gun violence.
Related:
ACLU takes aim at the Bill of Rights by tapping ‘experts’ to explain how ‘racism is foundational to the Second Amendment’ https://t.co/wEvLY7Z2Pp
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) July 26, 2021
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