| 
            
              | 
 | 
                
                
                  
                    | 
                              
                                   
                                        | 
                              
                              
                              NOTE! 
                               
                              This is a real-time comments system. As such, it's also a
                      free speech zone within guidelines set forth on the Post
                      Comments page. Opinions expressed here may or may not
                      reflect those of KeepAndBearArms staff, members, or
                      any other living person besides the one who posted them.
                      Please keep that in mind. We ask that all who post
                              comments assure that they adhere to our Inclusion
                              Policy, but there's a bad apple in every
                              bunch, and we have no control over bigots and
                              other small-minded people.  Thank you. --KeepAndBearArms.com
                              
                              
                                         |  
                         
                         The
                      Below Comments Relate to this Newslink:
                         
                                       
                                            
                      
     
  
    | MT: 2nd Amendment restricts government Submitted by: 
			
Mark A. Taff
 Website: http://www.marktaff.com
 | 
			There 
				is 1 comment 
			 	on this storyPost Comments | Read Comments
 |  
    | Regardless of where one stands on gun control, we should see the prerogative of gun regulation resides in the statehouses, not the White House. The president certainly can use his "bully pulpit" to solicit legislation through the states. But Montana officials should remind the president and Congress the Second Amendment is a stern restriction on them.
 |  
 
 
     
  
    | Comment by: 
     PHORTO
     (3/27/2021) |  
    | The writer arrives at the right conclusion, but his analysis is only partially accurate. 
 He is correct that the 2A was intended for the purpose he indicated. However, that is merely the purpose the right is enshrined in writing. The right and the purpose for its enumeration are two different things. The right exists regardless of its enumeration, and it is fundamental. The enumeration doesn't create the right, which is preexisting. It prohibits any federal infringement*, ostensibly for the reason stated in the amendment's subordinate clause.
 
 *The 14A extends the prohibition to bind the states.
 
 Separating these two issues is paramount to understanding the importance of the right, and its prominent place as an unalienable liberty.
 |  
 
 |  |  
              | QUOTES
                TO REMEMBER |  
              | 
                    
                      | To trust arms in the hands of the people at large has, in Europe, been believed...to be an experiment fraught only with danger. Here by a long trial it has been proved to be perfectly harmless...If the government be equitable; if it be reasonable in its exactions; if proper attention be paid to the education of children in knowledge and religion, few men will be disposed to use arms, unless for their amusement, and for the defence of themselves and their country.  — Timothy Dwight, Travels in New England and New York [London 1823] |  |  |