Let's be honest about the Second Amendment

It simply does not say what gun-rights absolutists claim it does

A New York state militia during the Civil War
(Image credit: Hi-Story / Alamy Stock Photo)

The Second Amendment clearly and definitively does not say what so many gun-rights absolutists in America claim it does. This is interesting when you consider conservatives' otherwise consistent adherence to constitutional originalism.

Consider, for instance, that one of the soundest, if clearly not the most persuasive, arguments made against legalized abortion in this country is that the actual text of the 14th Amendment, so far from containing some kind of ethereal right to privacy that extends to child murder under appropriately clandestine conditions, is a straightforward brief for protecting the lives of all persons, including those in utero.

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Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.