Second Amendment preserves other amendments and our freedom

Thank you for the ongoing series of articles in your newspaper by Myron Moskovitz, Esq., wherein he cogently sets forth the approach that he would apply to "interpreting our Constitution" were he a Supreme Court justice. In his articles he fully, respectfully, and straightforwardly discusses the following key principles/factors that must be applied/considered in interpreting our Constitution: (a) the importance of democratic self-government; (b) the importance of individual rights; (c) the need to protect vulnerable minority groups; (d) the intent of the drafters of the Constitution vis-a-vis the terms they used and the context of their times; and (e) the value which a nonpolitical judiciary, skilled in the interpretation of documents, brings to the task of interpreting our Constitution. All of the judges of our land would be well advised to review Mr. Moskovitz' concise, yet comprehensive and balanced, discussion of this subject.

However, toward the end of Part IV of his series, regarding "protecting individual rights", Mr. Moskovitz is historically incomplete as he favorably compares Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022) 142 S.Ct. 2228 (which returned the subject of abortion to our democratic processes) with District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) 554 U.S. 570 (which upheld our Second Amendment rights against local statutes) and writes: "Heller is a classic situation where the Court did not need to intervene in the democratic process. Gun owners and their supporters are in no way a despised group excluded from the political process, as shown by their many successes in the legislative process. Their position is nothing comparable to the exclusion that Blacks, gays, women and religious minorities have faced. They don't need a judge to intervene and turn their legislative losses into Constitutional victories. Yes, the Second Amendment is in the Constitution and must be given some effect. But ... it is not the same as the other Amendments, which are designed to protect groups that cannot protect themselves from oppressive majority rulings."

Here, Mr. Moskovitz ignores the following historical realities: (1) at the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775 the main objective of the forces of the majority of the British Empire was to take away the arms of the Patriots; (2) in 1790 America had no standing army or police departments; all male citizens over the age of 16 were deemed members of the militia of their state; (3) had Hitler, Stalin, and Mao not imposed strict gun control as one of their first orders of business, many more Jewish, Kulak, and Chinese people would be alive today; (4) during the numerous American race riots since our Civil War many more African Americans would have been killed had they not had firearms to protect their homes; and (5) each year millions of Americans protect themselves from violent criminals via their guns. The Second Amendment helps preserve our other amendments and protect us from criminals, invaders, rebels, and wild animals. Long thrive the Second Amendment.

John K. Haggerty

SBN: 129850