"[T]he effort to control popular access to weapons has a long history. It's been a problem since long before there were guns. Rulers have always preferred that they -- not their subjects -- have the tools of power." --William Weir

The history of Armament and Disarmament
From ancient Greece to Continental Europe to Britain to the United States, greater equality of armament has inevitably been associated with an increasingly democratic society -- and this democratization has always been feared by the ruling classes. As Sir Walter Raleigh once noted, a tyrant always tries "to unarm his people of weapons, money, and all means whereby they resist his power." This attempt at disarmament of the lower classes and minority peoples has a long and ignoble history: in 1181, Henry II of England decreed that all Jews must surrender any metal armor they had; in 1328, Edward III forbade the citizenry from going armed in a public place; Henry VIII prohibited anyone with an income of less than 300 pounds a year from owning a handgun (which at the time meant a light rifle) with a barrel less than a yard long; after the Reformation, Catholics were barred from bearing arms, as were the Scottish Highlanders after their rebellions in 1715 and 1745...and the "Saturday Night Special" importation ban passed in 1968 in the United States was aimed directly at poor American blacks and immigrants.

Although there was an initial attempt in the early American colonies to retain the European stratification of armament based on class, in essence a short-lived attempt to create an American gentry, even the early American militia was swiftly democratized. According to firearms law historian and commentator William Weir, "The first 105 settlers in Jamestown included 54 who were labeled gentlemen and were expected to be the musket-bearers who would protect the other colonists. There were two drawbacks: (1) the colony couldn't afford to have half its number carrying muskets but doing no other work; (2) in the event of Indian attack, it couldn't afford to have the other half unarmed. The notion that only gentlemen could carry guns quickly vanished." This notion of the militia consisting of the entire population of able-bodied males, which in fact had its roots in European history, remained in place at the drafting of the Constitution, leading to the wording of the Second Amendment.

So what does that pesky amendment really mean, anyway?

Amendment Two: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms shall not be infringed.
The "militia clause" of the Second Amendment has long been a favored target of gun-control advocates; such individuals and organizations typically claim that the reference to "a well regulated Militia" means that the Second Amendment insures only the right of the states to maintain National Guard units, not the right of the people to individually own firearms. Unfortunately for the gun-grabbers, this is an incredibly weak argument. Historical context (including that documented in the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers) shows without question that the "militia," as mentioned above, referred to all able-bodied males within the age of service; this interpretation is further supported by the still extant federal statute (Title 10, United States Code, paragraph 311[a]) that immortalized the definition of "militia" as consisting of all males over 17 and under 45.

While the wording of the Second Amendment makes clear that the right to keep and bear arms was written into the Bill of Rights at least in part because of the need for a well-armed citizens' militia, it does not say anywhere that citizens must be part of the militia to own guns (though indeed all male citizens of military-service age are automatically members of the militia). What it does say is that it must remain possible for a well-regulated (meaning "standardized") militia to be formed, in case there is a threat to the freedom of the state. The effect can be examined from a better perspective if we simply switch the subject of the text from "guns" to "books." Example: "A well-educated legislature being necessary for the security of a Free State, the right of the People to Keep and Read Books shall not be infringed." This would never be interpreted to mean that people could only read books if they were members of the legislature; if such an interpretation were to become dominant, we would likely not have an educated legislature at all. Finally, the use of the phrase "the right of the people" in the wording of the Second Amendment incontrovertibly shows that the Amendment refers not to State's Rights, as some anti-gun organizations have attempted to claim, but to the individual citizens themselves. Such ridiculous quibbling over the meaning of the Second Amendment is based not on legitimate questions regarding wording, but on predetermined political positions.

The Second Amendment means exactly what it says: the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Yet every time a new gun ban is passed, this right is being infringed.

...Shall not be infringed... Violations of the Second Amendment in 20th-century law.
While firearms laws violating the Second Amendment are far too numerous to list here, no discussion of gun rights is complete without coverage of the five major pieces of legislation passed in this century which have seriously impacted the right to keep and bear arms on a national level.

National Firearms Act of 1934
In the mid-1930's, after the Prohibition-era rise in Mafia and other criminal activity --especially criminal activity associated with the use of the Thompson sub-machine gun ("Tommy-gun"), the notion of restricting access to such weapons was incredibly popular. In 1934, after several abortive attempts in which the details of the bill were defined and redefined numerous times, Congress finally passed the National Firearms Act, which imposed a $200 tax on each transfer of one of the notorious "gangster weapons," primarily full-auto firearms. Also covered under the bill were sawed-off shotguns and rifles under a certain barrel length, silencers, and trick guns (such as pen guns and cane guns). The 1934 National Firearms Act did not entirely prohibit ownership or transfer of the covered weapons, but it did require registration (a precursor to confiscation) and payment of the $200 transfer tax. In Depression-era America, a $200 tax was extremely prohibitive, often amounting to more than the cost of the gun itself; thus, this Act can be considered one of the many restricting access to arms to the well-to-do. Luckily for modern-day firearms enthusiasts, the dollar amount set forth in the bill has never been changed; one can still obtain a restricted weapon for only the cost of the gun plus the original $200 tax.

Gun Control Act of 1968
This act, written and passed largely as a part of the backlash after the shootings of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy, banned both the interstate sale of handguns and long guns, and the importation of military surplus weapons and cheap handguns, often called "Saturday night specials," despite the fact that the latter were involved in none of the assassinations which prompted Congress to enact this piece of legislation. The impulse to ban importation of cheap handguns --"Saturday night specials," or, as journalists have nicknamed them, SNSs --came at least in part from the urban riots of the late 1960's. The SNS was the weapon of poor people --and in keeping with historical precedent, Congress once again voted to restrict access to weaponry to the upper echelons of society, those who could afford expensive, high-quality firearms.

The Bush Ban/Assault Weapons Ban of 1989
In 1989, Bush betrayed his conservative platform and issued an executive order banning the importation of "assault weapons," a category based solely on cosmetic characteristics, despite the fact that such rifles are virtually never used in the commission of crimes. Since 1989, it has been illegal to import rifles which have a combination of two or more of the named characteristics. Gone are the flash suppressors and the threaded barrels which allow their installation, bayonet lugs, pistol grips, and folding stocks which supposedly made rifles more dangerous and deadly-- or at least more frightening in appearance to ignorant gun-control proponents.

The Clinton Ban/Crime Control Act of 1994
Five years later, Bill Clinton pushed a new piece of legislation through Congress. The "assault weapons" sections of the Crime Control Act of 1994 banned domestic manufacture of the same firearms banned from importation under the 1989 Bush Ban. Clinton claimed that the purpose of these sections was to bring domestic policy up to the level of international trade policy; in fact, the purpose was to continue making inroads into the rights clearly spelled out by the Constitution.

1998 Clinton Importation Ban
Last month, Clinton signed into permanent existence his latest attempt to undermine the right to keep and bear arms. What began as an executive order to place a temporary hold on the importation of certain firearms has now been signed into law; as of last month, an additional 58 firearms have been banned from import by name. According to gun-control activists and their poster-boy Bill, this latest ban merely closes "loopholes" left in the 1989 and 1994 "assault weapons" bans; another popular justification is that the weapons named have features which are not required for "sporting purposes" (apparently Bill has decided that the Second Amendment is really about the right of the people to keep and bear arms for the sole purpose of hunting deer). In fact, the weapons newly banned from importation simply do not fit the definition of "assault weapon," which is clearly spelled out in the earlier legislation. Once again, this latest ban is an unconstitutional attempt to restrict the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

Protest the violations of our freedoms! --Banned Gun Solidarity Shoot
So what to do about it? Well, none of these laws are going to go away, despite the success of the McClure-Volkmer Bill in 1985, but we can protest them by engaging in the expression and exercise of our Constitutional rights. The library has Banned Books Week; now we have Banned Gun Shoots. On Sunday, May 31st, from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, the Albany Rifle & Pistol Club, only a forty-minute drive from Eugene, will be holding the "1st Annual ARPC Banned Gun Solidarity Shoot." Join us for a day of delightful revelry, exercising our inalienable rights, and going through a hell of a lot of ammo!

Kerry Delf, a senior majoring in Psychology and Women's Studies, is a copy editor for the Oregon Commentator.

Supreme Court Decisions on the "Embarrassing Second Amendment"

Dred Scott. v. Sanford (1856):
In this infamous case, the Court held that even free African-Americans could not be citizens because that "would give them the full liberty of speech in public and in private, upon all subjects in which [a slave state's] citizens might speak; to hold public meetings upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went"--in other words, the Court held that the right "to keep and carry arms wherever they went" was an inalienable right of every citizen.

Presser v. Illinois (1886):
"It is undoubtedly true that all citizens capable of bearing arms constitute the reserved military force or reserve militia of the United States as well as the States; and, in view of this prerogative of the General Government, as well as of its general powers, the States cannot, even laying the constitutional provisions in question out of view, prohibit the people from keeping and bearing arms, so as to deprive the United States of their rightful resource for maintaining the public security, and disable the people from performing their duty to the general government."

United States v. Miller (1939):
In this well-known case, the Court again affirmed that the militia consists of all males capable of bearing arms and that when called up they "were expected to appear bearing arms supplied by themselves and of the kind in common use at the time"--in other words, that all potential militia members (all males between the ages of 17 and 45) are not only allowed to possess arms, but that they are expected to, as the Framers intended.

United States v. Verdugo-Urquidez (1990):
According to David B. Kopel, a former New York assistant district attorney and a widely quoted commentator on firearms law, "The Supreme Court's most recent statement on the Second Amendment was that the 'right of the people to keep and bear arms' and the 'right of the people peacably to assemble' protect the same class of people as 'the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures.' In all cases, the Court said, the 'right of the people' refers to individual American citizens.

1st Annual Banned Gun Solidarity Shoot

THIS IS A FREE EVENT! THERE IS NO CHARGE FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC!

If you legally own a firearm (Class I or Class III) that has been banned from import, domestic manufacture, and/or sale to the general public, bring it and all the ammo you can carry out to the range! We are looking for lots of flash suppressors, bayonet lugs, pistol grips, high-capacity detachable magazines and black plastic. Bring your suppressors, machine guns, short-barreled shotguns, and anything else of a similar kind. Hot food will be available in the clubhouse.

DIRECTIONS: To reach the ARPC range, leave Interstate 5 at Exit 228 (the Corvallis/Lebanon exit) and head east toward Lebanon. Approximately 1/2 mile east of the freeway, turn south onto Seven Mile Lane. Follow Seven Mile Lane about 4-5 miles, until it bends east, and turn right (west) onto Boston Mill Dr. Follow Boston Mill Dr. until you reach the 1-5 overpass (no exits there) and take the gravel road straight ahead. You are at the entrance to the Club at that point.

For anyone coming from out-of-state with a Class III firearm, the range address (for your ATF Form 5320.20) is:

Albany Rifle & Pistol Club
29991 Saddle Butte Rd.
Shedd, OR 97377

Please feel free to call me evenings, (PST) at (541) 754-1605, if you have any questions.

-Mark C.
Full-Auto Director, Albany Rifle & Pistol Club, Albany, OR