Biden: Prostitution of the 2nd Amendment

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

Former Vice President Joe Biden says the 2nd Amendment is badly misinterpreted.  Biden claims the 2nd Amendment was not for gun ownership for everyone, or the ownership of scary, high caliber guns.  He considers the conservative Republican view of the 2nd Amendment a "prostitution" of the amendment.

Biden said, “I think the 2nd Amendment is being very badly interpreted. It’s not consistent with what they’re — our founders intended, in my view. You saw Justice John Paul Stevens say that we should — because it’s been so prostituted, we should repeal the 2nd Amendment. It was about a standing militia. It’s a long story. I won’t go into all the legal side of that having taught it in law school. But there’s rational or irrational policy.”

He added, “What’s happened here is, the nation as a whole has decided it can no longer, in my view, continue to turn a blind eye to the prostitution of the 2nd Amendment here, and no longer can turn a blind eye to the enormous damage being done, not just in our schools, but on our streets, right here in Philly and Wilmington, Delaware, where I’m from, every night.”

Standing militia?

Even the U.S. Code recognizes that the citizens at large are a part of the militia, for one.

Title 10 of the United States Code provides for both "organized" and "unorganized" civilian militias. While the organized militia is made up of members of the National Guard and Naval Militia, the unorganized militia is composed entirely of private individuals.

United States Code: Title 10 – Armed Forces

Subtitle A – General Military Law

Chapter 13 – The Militia

Sec. 311. Militia: composition and classes

**(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
**(b) The classes of the militia are -
*****(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard
and the Naval Militia; and
*****(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of
the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the
Naval Militia.

Other than age, health, gender, or citizenship, there are no additional provisions for exemption from membership in the unorganized militia.

While in the corner of my soul I have hoped it will never be called to duty, the United States civilian militia does legally exist.  That said, the possibility of the civilian militia needing to be called into action to fight against a tyrannical government exists . . . and the ability for the people to use force to "alter or abolish" (as the Declaration of Independence puts it) the government should it become tyrannical is the whole point of the 2nd Amendment.

That's the reason the argument that the AR-15 is for the purpose of killing people is a bad argument for gun control.  The purpose of the 2nd Amendment is to kill people should it be necessary to keep the American System from devolving into a tyranny.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary