Sonart: Fascinating link, Yarn. I loved this one...
"The ultimate arbiter is the people of the Union, assembled by their deputies in convention, at the call of Congress or of two-thirds of the States. Let them decide to which they mean to give an authority claimed by two of their organs. And it has been the peculiar wisdom and felicity of our Constitution, to have provided this peaceable appeal, where that of other nations is at once to force." -- Thomas Jefferson
How many cases involving Constitutional questions does the High Court and Circuit Courts decide every year? Did Jefferson actually think we should call a Constitutional Convention to decide every lawsuit involving a question of Constitutional rights?
Something like that. He also believed we should throw out our constitution every generation, and write a new one. I'm not saying I agree with him on this stuff.
I just think that its true that the constitution should not be always be interpeted in the strictist possible sense because thats not a practical or fair thing to do. Judicial review is an example of how being flexible with our interpretation of the constitution has served to enforce and preserve the constitution as well as serve the greater good.
minorwork: I would guess he does not favor private ownership of working, loaded firearms.
As the website you cite shows, his position is more moderate than that.
Before I post more in this thread let me make something clear:
Regardless of my constitutional views, I don't actually view gun laws in general as being effective at reducing violence. Particularly when such laws they are only local or are profile specific (e.g. no felons). Even in Great Britian, where there is a complete national ban on private handguns, handgun use has only risen since the ban.
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BBC News | UK | Handgun crime 'up' despite ban
The fight against illicit gun possession is a lot like the war against drugs, though I think I prefer the latter.