Zackey Rahimi, the Texas criminal defendant challenging a federal gun law before the Supreme Court on Tuesday, said this summer that he no longer wanted to own firearms and expressed remorse for his actions that got him in trouble with the law.

“I will make sure for sure this time that when I finish my time being incarcerated to stay the faithful, righteous person I am this day, to stay away from all drugs at all times, do probation & parole rightfully, to go to school & have a great career, have a great manufacturing engineering job, to never break any law again, to stay away from the wrong circle, to stay away from all firearms & weapons, & to never be away from my family again,” Rahimi, who is being held at a Fort Worth jail, said in a handwritten letter dated July 25.

He continued: “I had firearms for the right reason in our place to be able to protect my family at all times especially for what we’ve went through in the past but I’ll make sure to do whatever it takes to be able to do everything the right pathway & to be able to come home fast as I can to take care of my family at all times.”

  • mark3748@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    There are other, primary sources, that back up this interpretation. The Federalist Papers is a good starting point.

    I don’t know the real answer, but it seems that defining a collective right as the second in a list of nine other individual rights doesn’t seem logical. I, personally, believe the individual right is what was intended. I also believe that over 200 years have passed and it needs to be updated. Arguing the semantics isn’t going to help anyone and simply attempting to re-interpret what’s supposed to be a living document is absurd. That being said, it would take a lot more people being a lot more rational to ever have a hope of making those changes.

    • toasteecup@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, quoting the federalist papers to me is about as good as me quoting some other source that as equally invalidates that opinion.

      Sure it’s a source and sure you can based an opinion on it but it’s not definitive by any means no matter how much conservatives would like to suggest otherwise.

      • mark3748@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Let me get this straight, you don’t believe that the words mean something and claim we can’t know their intent, then when offered additional context provided by some of the people who wrote the words you disagree with you dismiss it out of hand?

        What would be a proper source to you then? Or do you prefer to revel in willful ignorance? Because that sounds like a pretty conservative view to me.

        • toasteecup@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          And I’ll point out my exact issue “written by some people who wrote them”

          What if I quoted Thomas Jefferson, who did the actual writing of the constitution, about separation of church and state? Would you then agree that it’s needed as he so strongly agreed for?

          What I’m telling you is I disagree with the writers of the federalist papers as did quite a few of the other founders.

          • mark3748@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            I was not arguing one way or the other, I was providing historical context. You’re arguing against points I never made. I’m glad you disagree with the writers of the federalist papers, but that is irrelevant.

            I do agree with Thomas Jefferson on the need for a separation of church and state. You seem to have read me entirely incorrectly and made some weird assumptions.

            • toasteecup@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              You are correct that I made incorrect assumptions and for what it’s worth I apologize. Thank you for the historical context and have a lovely evening.