The Smallest Minority

Hello -
As an Englishmen (and supporter of gun ownership) this is my understanding of the second amendment:

Amendment II
"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

With the best will in the world this means anything but unconditional gun ownership. Why do people only quote the second clause?

Also how come my e-mail address was there before I'd even started writing? This is my first time on this site. I'm not sure I'm happy about that.....

Jack: The meaning of the whole thing has been well-dissected here and elsewhere (and with incredible intensity by Justice Scalia in the Heller majority opinion), and as others are better at condensing it, I'll let them...

But it's not Haloscan or Kevin's fault if your e-mail address is appearing in the window before your post, that's your browser helpfully filling in information you've entered in the past in the same fields elsewhere for you. All on your end. (Mine does it too.)

Jack:

If you'll read the Heller decision, in no way does Justice Scalia state, infer, suggest, or opine that the Second Amendment protects "unconditional gun ownership." That's a canard our opposition has been using literally for decades.

If you'd like to read a fairly detailed précis on your question, I invite you to read part of a debate on the topic I had a few years ago.

And LabRat is entirely correct - your browser "fills in the blanks" on the Haloscan window because you allow it to.

I think Haloscan might remember your information, so if you've ever commented on any site using Haloscan for comments, it might auto-fill based on cookies.

And Jack, for a very quick and effective explanation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GNu7ldL1LM

The whole episode is well worth watching, but that ought to explain the answer to your question.