The Tea Party, guns, and the Supreme Court

This letter to the editor appeared in the Jan. 13 edition of the SF Examiner:

Let’s be clear on meaning

The NRA acts as if the exact wording of the Second Amendment was this: “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

This is the Constitution’s Amendment II, Right to bear arms: “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.”

Even such a conservative stalwart as Judge Robert Bork said, in 1989, that “the Constitution’s Second Amendment guaranteed the right of states to form militias, not for individuals to bear arms.”

Larry N. Lorenzoni
San Francisco

Rob's comment: Yes, but unfortunately the Supreme Court ruled in Heller that the Second Amendment is about the individual's right to own a gun, which is clearly contrary to the wording of the amendment. Like the House of Representatives, the Supreme Court is now dominated by Tea Party-like ideologues. See also the Bush v. Gore decision that stole the 2000 election from the Democrats and Citizens United, which allows big money to distort our democracy.