New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has issued an emergency public health order temporarily suspending the right to carry firearms in public across Albuquerque and surrounding Bernalillo County.
At the time the constitution was passed, the Bill of Rights only applied to the Federal Government. The Second Amendment basically is saying “Hey, if the Feds were to regulate guns, then States couldn’t form militias and the country would be undefended because there’s no standing army. So we recognize a right to own guns at a Federal level. What States do, OTOH, is up to them.”
And this might have been fine, if antiquated quickly given it didn’t take long for everyone to realize State Militias were a dumb idea and the US needed an Army, but for the fact that the States didn’t get on, the South was basically made up of Slavery imposing tyrannies, and the end result was a civil war (which wasn’t very civil, despite the name.)
And in the aftermath of that war, the 14th Amendment imposed the bill of rights on all the states. So now the states also can’t interfere with the “right” to own guns, despite it never being the founder’s intent that the right be recognized on any level other than Federal.
So, that’s why those words are there. It’s a “Hey, this might sound really weird if we don’t give some context, so here’s some context” preamble. And unfortunately, as such, is meaningless, especially since the 14th didn’t make an exception for it (they really should have done.)
They set context at the time.
At the time the constitution was passed, the Bill of Rights only applied to the Federal Government. The Second Amendment basically is saying “Hey, if the Feds were to regulate guns, then States couldn’t form militias and the country would be undefended because there’s no standing army. So we recognize a right to own guns at a Federal level. What States do, OTOH, is up to them.”
And this might have been fine, if antiquated quickly given it didn’t take long for everyone to realize State Militias were a dumb idea and the US needed an Army, but for the fact that the States didn’t get on, the South was basically made up of Slavery imposing tyrannies, and the end result was a civil war (which wasn’t very civil, despite the name.)
And in the aftermath of that war, the 14th Amendment imposed the bill of rights on all the states. So now the states also can’t interfere with the “right” to own guns, despite it never being the founder’s intent that the right be recognized on any level other than Federal.
So, that’s why those words are there. It’s a “Hey, this might sound really weird if we don’t give some context, so here’s some context” preamble. And unfortunately, as such, is meaningless, especially since the 14th didn’t make an exception for it (they really should have done.)