Eh, the courts have NOT consistently held that it's an individual right. Just the opposite, in fact.
However, the issue is up for grabs again. Within this decade two Circuit Courts of Appeals have reached opposite conclusions on this issue, one that supports the individual right (Fifth Circuit, United States v. Emerson, 270 F.3d 203) and one that denies it (Ninth Circuit, Silveira v. Lockyer, 312 F.3d 1052). This conflict puts pressure on the Supreme Court to finally decide the issue, but don't count your chickens. It may be very difficult to find a test case.
FWIW, the issue has been brewing in the highest reaches of legal theorizing since the publication, in the Yale Law Review, of Sanford Levinson's article, "The Embarrassing Second Amendment" (1989). The article is widely available online for anyone who's interested.
Laurence Tribe (the most famous liberal legal scholar) caused a furor a few years by swinging, to a large degree, to the individual-rights position. It is an extremely hot issue in legal scholarship today, part of a broader turmoil of re-thinking various rights issues.
The people Don't Want the job. The only way to get qualified people for most high government positions would be to draft them. Almost by definition, if you WANT the position of power, you probably can't be trusted not to abuse it.
So you are a proponent of the Douglas Adams School of Politics, too.
"To summarize: it is a well known fact that those people who most WANT to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to it. Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."
-Doug Adams _The Restaurant at The End of The Universe_
However, keep in mind that the 5th, while it has fewer cases reviewed by the USSC, had 100% of them overturned in a recent year. I think it was five cases in one year.
There's no way anyone can anticipate how this one would come out. I'd put my money on the individual-right interpretation prevailing, but I wouldn't bet heavily.
I had one Heating A/C company call me 35 times in one week, insisting that I needed their annual inspection service on a central air system. (I didn't even have a window unit.) This was before the do not call list.
The last time they called I told them that I had hundreds of retired friends in town, and if they called me one more time that these people would take turns tying up all of the company's phone lines with stupid questions, and calling to have the company send their sales people out to give estimates, with no intention of spending a dime and promised her that it would be damn near impossible for a legitimate customer to get through on their phone lines. She yelled, "That's harassment!" I laughed and told her, 'Now you know how I feel.'
Where did you get your copy of the Constitution? 'Cause I've read the Second Amendment dozens of times from dozens of sources, and and NONE of the copies I EVER saw limit the right to bear arms to "a well regulated militia." And read my first post above again.
That's fun, but it takes a lot of time. I just say, "Excuse me a minute, I'll be right back." Then I put down the phone and read a book or something. Five minutes later I just hang up the phone.
I was having fun with the young ladies from the NRA the other night, though. I just couldn't say no in the end. d8-)
I had one collection agency caller (10 calls between 7 AM and 7:45 AM) taken off the case and calls stopped because of the harassment they got when they called my number. Gerry :-)} London, Canada
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