Limited in scope

How did the NRA gain so much power and influence? Since its creation in 1871, the NRA had devoted its efforts primarily to gun safety. However, in the 1970’s following congressional enactments of new restricted gun laws that required gun licensing, a militant segment within the NRA, gained control of the organization and the NRA became aggressive and loose with the truth.
On the front of the NRA headquarters in Washington is an abbreviated engraved version of the Second Amendment: “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The NRA unilaterally amended the Second Amendment to avoid the language pertaining to a Militia.
The U.S. Supreme Court in the 1939 Miller case ruled that “the Second Amendment interpreted and applied with the view of its purpose of rendering effective Militia.” In 2008 the Supreme Court in the Heller case, held that there existed an individual right to bear arms only for traditional purposes such as self-defense in the home. The Court declared the Second Amendment should not be understood as granting a “right to keep and carry any weapons whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.” The Court gave examples of firearm laws presumed to be lawful, such as prohibiting firearm possession by felons, mentally ill persons and possession of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings and found that the Second Amendment is consistent with laws banning firearms that are “dangerous and unusual.”
So the Miller case ruled that the obvious purposes of the Second Amendment was to ensure effectiveness of the state militia and the Heller case only granted the right of an individual to possess a gun for self-defense in the home. The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling was very limited and was not a broad sweeping statement as an absolute constitutional right as proclaimed by the NRA.
The NRA has poured million upon millions of dollars into federal and state legislative campaigns and elections to promote the myth of an absolute right to possess firearms without any restrictions. The NRA’s view of the Second Amendment is not consistent with constitutional law.
The NRA myths has controlled too many elected officials to allow for protection of our citizens from gun violence, gun deaths, and unspeakable gun horrors in schools and public places.
It is the education of both the citizenry and the lawmakers that is necessary in order to challenge the untrue messaging of the NRA. Lies, myths, and fiction will continue to harm and kill our citizens unless and until the actual constitutional view of the very limited scope of the Second Amendment right is known and understood.
Steve H. Tokarski,
Publisher