Most of the strong gun supporters that claim to be sticking closely to the constitution are adhering to a revisionist history that started when libertarians took over the NRA in the 1960s/1970s. American gun views aren’t only eccentric to the rest of the world but they are also eccentric to the majority of American history.
@TK421 was entirely accurate when he/she stated that the idea the second amendment protects an individual right to own a gun is a recent event, 2008 as a matter of fact. Before District of Columbia v. Heller, 2008, the second amendment had always been interpreted as referring to barring arms as part of a well-0regulated militia. Which is exactly how the amendment reads. It was the first time, in 240 years, the supreme court had ruled that an individual has a right, under the constitution, to own a gun for self-defense.
I am a, for the most part, a constitutional originalist. And I do not like when the courts “make-up” a right that was not the original intent of the framers. Conservatives should be more consistent and admit that the 2008 decision was certainly a violation of originalism.
