LETTER: Read the Preamble
In response to the letter to the editor stating that the Second Amendment needs to be clarified, one only needs to read the explanatory Preamble to the Bill of Rights. The second paragraph provides what a person needs to understand all of the provisions. It says: “The conventions of a number of the states, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.”
The Second Amendment contains both declaratory and restrictive clauses. The declaratory part is “a well-regulated militia being necessary to a free state,” and the restrictive clause is “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
You will also find that only the Third Amendment contains a exception, which allows a law passed by Congress to permit the housing of soldiers in homes. Nowhere else does the Constitution grant any other exceptions to the restrictions placed on government. The problem is that this Preamble is missing from many copies of the Constitution.
David Vukmanic
Dilliner