
re: is "John Q. Public with a gun" protected?




Miller was convicted of owning a sawed-off shotgun and not paying the
NFA '34 tax.  Snatches of the court's decision:

The Second Amendment was intended to "assure the continuation and render 
possible the effectiveness of such a force [the militia]... It must be 
interpreted and applied with that end in view."

The militia includes "all males physically capable of acting in concert 
for the common defense."

However, regarding sawed-off shotguns, "certainly it is not within 
judicial notice that this weapon is any part of the ordinary military 
equipment or that its use could contribute to the common defense."

"Judicial notice" is the term of art here -- it meant that no such
evidence had been formally presented.  This is different from claiming
that they had ruled that it wasn't.


I'm not talking about plain shotguns in war -- I'm talking about short-
barrelled ("sawed-off") shotguns in war.

Compare Revolutionary War blunderbusses; luparas in the Spanish-American 
War; and trench-cleaners in WW I.  They were also put to good use by
US soldiers in WW II, not to mention being invaluable to "tunnel rats" 
in Vietnam, but, of course, "Miller" took place in 1939.


Here is my quandary:  you seem to be arguing that certain types of 
guns fall outside the scope of the Second.  This isn't a useful argument 
unless you believe that some significant gun or class of gun belongs
in that class.  

I think we both agree that zip guns probably aren't protected.  Maybe 
we also both agree that all the weapons that random state governments 
have been banning or trying to ban because they have "no sporting purpose" 
and "no provate citizen would ever need these guns" DO fall under the 
protection of the Second.  

So, given that damn near any gun of any practical utility is or has at 
some time been used by the military, even if only for marksmanship 
training purposes, I need to understand why you are intent on pressing 
this point, arguing that that SOMETHING is not protected by the Second.


Often, what makes someone unpopular is what other people say about him.
How much did any of us fear or abhor the Branch Davidians six months ago?
How many of us feared or abhorred Saddam Hussein five years ago?
-- 