The Constitution of the United States of America

In 1777, after the Revolutionary War with Great Britain, The Articles of Confederation was written. They were dubbed a "loose confederation" or a "firm league of friendship," there was to be no executive branch. It sounds like it was more a League of Nations or the EU then a country. And there were obviously many problems with it, so the best and the brightest, the most trusted men of their time set out to fix it and instead made a new constitution. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton are a few of them. They had many different opinions, but they found common ground for the welfare of the entire country. The United States ratified the Constitution and instituted it as the supreme law of the land in 1789. Today, the United States Constitution is the oldest, written constitution that has continuously remained in effect in the world. It established the first federal form of government, the first system of checks and balances. The Constitution formed the three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial.
The whole thing was in jeopardy of being thrown out due to the lack of a bill of rights and the difference in ideology between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists once again men were able to put the country above all else and the first 10 amendments were ratified in 1791 AKA The Bill of Rights. It continues to play a central role in law and government, and remains a fundamental symbol of the freedom for this great country.
Recently there have been two big rulings by the Supreme Court one on the second amendment and one a ruling on the writ of habeas corpus that I will tackle at a later time.
The second amendment provides: “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.
Ok, I know we are post Clinton era where we like to debate what the definition of is, is. But to me it’s obvious what this is saying. Because the revolutionary war was won by regular people taking there guns from over the fire place and grouping together to protect their state, their home, and their family; they made the right to keep and bear arms the second amendment not the eighth or the sixth. It’s second only to the freedom of speech, the press, and right to petition, and assemble. They deliberately made sure anyone was going to have a hell of a time taking the guns out of the homes of ordinary people, because this was our most powerful weapon to protect against invasion. Yes, times have changed and the most powerful weapon is now nuclear, the sediment is still the same. Individuals fighting for their country are still very powerful; if this was not true the war with Iraq would be a cake walk. The founding fathers were very smart and knew that a person will defend his home to his last breath.
But for you word splitters out there, here is what the Supreme Court ruling says: “the second Amendment is naturally divided into two parts: its prefatory clause and its operative clause. The former does not limit the latter grammatically, but rather announces a purpose. Other legal documents of the founding era, particularly individual-rights provisions of state constitutions, commonly included a prefatory statement of purpose.”
So in other words first it’s a statement justifying the importance of the law, then the law itself.
It is not the supreme courts job to determine whether a law is still relevant in today’s society but to interpret the laws meaning and they did a very intelligent job. In the seventeen hundreds no one imagined the weapons we would have dreamed up by the year 2008. Taking that into account, the Supreme Court left it open to put restrictions on those weapons. So this is not a pass to own a missile but it should mean the right to own an M16 or M14.
Just as a side note: The poor republican has never owned a gun and does not hunt. But like many things in this world I support this ruling on principle. I love this country and share the ideals it was founded on. Without the Constitution it’s just a bunch of preoccupied people in the majority voting on things they half understand.

The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered... deeply, ...finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. George Washington