From the Radio Free Michigan archives ftp://141.209.3.26/pub/patriot If you have any other files you'd like to contribute, e-mail them to bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu. ------------------------------------------------ This file contains my work on establishing that the text of the Second Amendment ("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.) cannot be interpreted in any other way than as a constitutional protection of the right of the people to keep and bear arms. This file contains two published articles containing analyses of the Second Amendment by experts in American/ English usage and grammer, and some additional comments based on those analyses. J. Neil Schulman February 27, 1993 **************************************************************** The following article appeared in the September, 1991 issue of \California Libertarian News\, official newsletter of the California Libertarian Party. Reproduction on computer bulletin boards is permitted for informational purposes only. Copyright (c) 1991 by J. Neil Schulman. All other rights reserved. ENGLISH USAGE EXPERT INTERPRETS 2ND AMENDMENT by J. Neil Schulman I just had a conversation with Mr. A.C. Brocki, Editorial Coordinator for the Office of Instruction of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Mr. Brocki taught Advanced Placement English for several years at Van Nuys High School, as well as having been a senior editor for Houghton Mifflin. I was referred to Mr. Brocki by Sherryl Broyles of the Office of Instruction of the LA Unified School District, who described Mr. Brocki as the foremost expert in grammar in the Los Angeles Unified School District -- the person she and others go to when they need a definitive answer on English grammar. I gave Mr. Brocki my name, told him Sherryl Broyles referred me, then asked him to parse the following sentence: "A well-schooled electorate, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and read Books, shall not be infringed." Mr. Brocki informed me that the sentence was overpunctuated, but that the meaning could be extracted anyway. "A well-schooled electorate" is a nominative absolute. "being necessary to the security of a free State" is a participial phrase modifying "electorate" The subject (a compound subject) of the sentence is "the right of the people" "shall not be infringed" is a verb phrase, with "not" as an adverb modifying the verb phrase "shall be infringed" "to keep and read books" is an infinitive phrase modifying "right" I then asked him if he could rephrase the sentence to make it clearer. Mr. Brocki said, "Because a well-schooled electorate is necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and read books shall not be infringed." I asked: can the sentence be interpreted to restrict the right to keep and read books to a well-schooled electorate -- say, registered voters with a high-school diploma?" He said, "No." I then identified my purpose in calling him, and read him the Second Amendment in full: "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." He said he thought the sentence had sounded familiar, but that he hadn't recognized it. I asked, "Is the structure and meaning of this sentence the same as the sentence I first quoted you?" He said, "yes." I asked him to rephrase this sentence to make it clearer. He transformed it the same way as the first sentence: "Because a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." I asked him whether the meaning could have changed in two hundred years. He said, "No." I asked him whether this sentence could be interpreted to restrict the right to keep and bear arms to "a well-regulated militia." He said, "no." According to Mr. Brocki, the sentence means that the people \are\ the militia, and that the people have the right which is mentioned. I asked him again to make sure: Schulman: "Can the sentence be interpreted to mean that the right can be restricted to "a well-regulated militia?" Brocki: "No, I can't see that." Schulman: "Could another, professional in English grammar or linguistics interpret the sentence to mean otherwise?" Brocki: "I can't see any grounds for another interpretation." I asked Mr. Brocki if he would be willing to stake his professional reputation on this opinion, and be quoted on this. He said, "Yes." At no point in the conversation did I ask Mr. Brocki his opinion on the Second Amendment, gun control, or the right to keep and bear arms. J. Neil Schulman July 17, 1991 *************************************************************** The following is reprinted from the September 13, 1991 issue of \Gun Week\, and also appears under the title "The Text of The Second Amendment" in \Journal on Firearms and Public Policy\, Summer 1992, Volume 4, Number 1. Copyright (c) 1991 by The New Gun Week and Second Amendment Foundation. Informational reproduction of the entire article is hereby authorized provided the author, The New Gun Week and Second Amendment Foundation are credited. All other rights reserved. THE UNABRIDGED SECOND AMENDMENT by J. Neil Schulman If you wanted to know all about the Big Bang, you'd ring up Carl Sagan, right? And if you wanted to know about desert warfare, the man to call would be Norman Schwartzkopf, no question about it. But who would you call if you wanted the top expert on American usage, to tell you the meaning of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution? That was the question I asked Mr. A.C. Brocki, Editorial Coordinator of the Los Angeles Unified School District and formerly senior editor at Houghton Mifflin Publishers -- who himself had been recommended to me as the foremost expert on English usage in the Los Angeles school system. Mr. Brocki told me to get in touch with Roy Copperud, a retired professor of journalism at the University of Southern California and the author of \American Usage and Style: The Consensus\. A little research lent support to Brocki's opinion of Professor Copperud's expertise. Roy Copperud was a newspaper writer on major dailies for over three decades before embarking on a distinguished seventeen- year career teaching journalism at USC. Since 1952, Copperud has been writing a column dealing with the professional aspects of journalism for \Editor and Publisher\, a weekly magazine focusing on the journalism field. He's on the usage panel of the American Heritage Dictionary, and Merriam Webster's Usage Dictionary frequently cites him as an expert. Copperud's fifth book on usage, \American Usage and Style: The Consensus\, has been in continuous print from Van Nostrand Reinhold since 1981, and is the winner of the Association of American Publishers' Humanities Award. That sounds like an expert to me. After a brief telephone call to Professor Copperud in which I introduced myself but did \not\ give him any indication of why I was interested, I sent the following letter: *** "July 26, 1991 "Dear Professor Copperud: "I am writing you to ask you for your professional opinion as an expert in English usage, to analyze the text of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, and extract the intent from the text. "The text of the Second Amendment is, '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.' "The debate over this amendment has been whether the first part of the sentence, "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State," is a restrictive clause or a subordinate clause, with respect to the independent clause containing the subject of the sentence, "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." "I would request that your analysis of this sentence not take into consideration issues of political impact or public policy, but be restricted entirely to a linguistic analysis of its meaning and intent. Further, since your professional analysis will likely become part of litigation regarding the consequences of the Second Amendment, I ask that whatever analysis you make be a professional opinion that you would be willing to stand behind with your reputation, and even be willing to testify under oath to support, if necessary." My letter framed several questions about the text of the Second Amendment, then concluded: "I realize that I am asking you to take on a major responsibility and task with this letter. I am doing so because, as a citizen, I believe it is vitally important to extract the actual meaning of the Second Amendment. While I ask that your analysis not be affected by the political importance of its results, I ask that you do this because of that importance. "Sincerely, "J. Neil Schulman" *** After several more letters and phone calls, in which we discussed terms for his doing such an analysis, but in which we never discussed either of our opinions regarding the Second Amendment, gun control, or any other political subject, Professor Copperud sent me the following analysis (into which I've inserted my questions for the sake of clarity): *** [Copperud:] The words "A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state," contrary to the interpretation cited in your letter of July 26, 1991, constitute a present participle, rather than a clause. It is used as an adjective, modifying "militia," which is followed by the main clause of the sentence (subject "the right," verb "shall"). The right to keep and bear arms is asserted as essential for maintaining a militia. In reply to your numbered questions: [Schulman: (1) Can the sentence be interpreted to grant the right to keep and bear arms \solely\ to "a well-regulated militia"?;] [Copperud:] (1) The sentence does not restrict the right to keep and bear arms, nor does it state or imply possession of the right elsewhere or by others than the people; it simply makes a positive statement with respect to a right of the people. [Schulman: (2) Is "the right of the people to keep and bear arms" \granted\ by the words of the Second Amendment, or does the Second Amendment assume a preexisting right of the people to keep and bear arms, and merely state that such right "shall not be infringed"?;] [Copperud:] (2) The right is not granted by the amendment; its existence is assumed. The thrust of the sentence is that the right shall be preserved inviolate for the sake of ensuring a militia. [Schulman: (3) Is the right of the people to keep and bear arms conditioned upon whether or not a well-regulated militia is, in fact, necessary to the security of a free State, and if that condition is not existing, is the statement "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed" null and void?;] [Copperud:] (3) No such condition is expressed or implied. The right to keep and bear arms is not said by the amendment to depend on the existence of a militia. No condition is stated or implied as to the relation of the right to keep and bear arms and to the necessity of a well-regulated militia as requisite to the security of a free state. The right to keep and bear arms is deemed unconditional by the entire sentence. [Schulman: (4) Does the clause "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State," grant a right to the government to place conditions on the "right of the people to keep and bear arms," or is such right deemed unconditional by the meaning of the entire sentence?;] [Copperud:] (4) The right is assumed to exist and to be unconditional, as previously stated. It is invoked here specifically for the sake of the militia. [Schulman: (5) Which of the following does the phrase "well- regulated militia" mean: "well-equipped," "well-organized," "well-drilled," "well-educated," or "subject to regulations of a superior authority"?] [Copperud:] (5) The phrase means "subject to regulations of a superior authority"; this accords with the desire of the writers for civilian control over the military. [Schulman: If at all possible, I would ask you to take into account the changed meanings of words, or usage, since that sentence was written two-hundred years ago, but not to take into account historical interpretations of the intents of the authors, unless those issues can be clearly separated.] [Copperud:] To the best of my knowledge, there has been no change in the meaning of words or in usage that would affect the meaning of the amendment. If it were written today, it might be put: "Since a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be abridged." [Schulman: As a "scientific control" on this analysis, I would also appreciate it if you could compare your analysis of the text of the Second Amendment to the following sentence, "A well-schooled electorate, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and read Books, shall not be infringed." My questions for the usage analysis of this sentence would be, (1) Is the grammatical structure and usage of this sentence, and the way the words modify each other, identical to the Second Amendment's sentence?; and (2) Could this sentence be interpreted to restrict "the right of the people to keep and read Books" \only\ to "a well- educated electorate" -- for example, registered voters with a high-school diploma?] [Copperud:] (1) Your "scientific control" sentence precisely parallels the amendment in grammatical structure. (2) There is nothing in your sentence that either indicates or implies the possibility of a restricted interpretation. *** Professor Copperud had only one additional comment, which he placed in his cover letter: "With well-known human curiosity, I made some speculative efforts to decide how the material might be used, but was unable to reach any conclusion." So now we have been told by one of the top experts on American usage what many knew all along: the Constitution of the United States unconditionally protects the people's right to keep and bear arms, forbidding all government formed under the Constitution from abridging that right. As I write this, the attempted coup against constitutional government in the Soviet Union has failed, apparently because the will of the people in that part of the world to be free from capricious tyranny is stronger than the old guard's desire to maintain a monopoly on dictatorial power. And here in the United States, elected lawmakers, judges, and appointed officials who are pledged to defend the Constitution of the United States ignore, marginalize, or prevaricate about the Second Amendment routinely. American citizens are put in American prisons for carrying arms, owning arms of forbidden sorts, or failing to satisfy bureaucratic requirements regarding the owning and carrying of firearms -- all of which is an abridgement of the unconditional right of the people to keep and bear arms, guaranteed by the Constitution. And even the ACLU, staunch defender of the rest of the Bill of Rights, stands by and does nothing. It seems it is up to those who believe in the right to keep and bear arms to preserve that right. No one else will. No one else can. Will we beg our elected representatives not to take away our rights, and continue regarding them as representing us if they do? Will we continue obeying judges who decide that the Second Amendment doesn't mean what it says but means whatever they say it means in their Orwellian doublespeak? Or will we simply keep and bear the arms of our choice, as the Constitution of the United States promises us we can, and pledge that we will defend that promise with our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor? *************************************************************** I was looking at the "View" section of the LA Times from December 18, 1991 today -- an article on James Michener which my wife Kate had saved for me to read -- when the beginning of Jack Smith's column caught my eye: "Roy Copperud had no sooner died the other day than I had occasion to consult his excellent book, 'American Usage and Style: The Consensus.'" Thus I learned of the death a few weeks ago of Roy Copperud, the retired USC professor whom I commissioned to do a grammatical analysis of the Second Amendment this past summer. (My article was published in the September 13th issue of \Gun Week\.) It seems to have been one of the last projects he worked on. It is certainly one of the most important. Roy Copperud told me afterwards that he, personally, favored gun control, but his analysis of the Second Amendment made clear that its protections of the right of the people to keep and bear arms were unaffected by its reference to militia. This sort of intellectual and professional honesty is sorely lacking in public discourse today. In my several letters and phone conversations with Professor Copperud, I found him to be a gentleman of the old school. The planet is a little poorer without him. J. Neil Schulman December 27, 1991 *************************************************************** SOME NOTES ON THE SECOND AMENDMENT by J. Neil Schulman, Founder and Chair The Committee to Enforce the Second Amendment "A well-regulated militia" in the preamble to the Second Amendment means "civilians who are trained how to use arms," as opposed to army regulars. In essence, the Second Amendment means, "Since it is necessary for the security of a free society that civilians know how to use arms, the right of the people to own and carry arms shall not be abridged." While Professor Copperud was technically correct that the meanings of the words haven't changed in 200 years -- the definition of "militia" in the dictionary and on the law books hasn't changed -- the public understanding of the word "militia" has been corrupted so most people today believe that the "militia" is a military unit rather than a civilian concept. This is precisely the "war is peace and freedom is slavery" corruption of language that George Orwell warned us against in \Nineteen eighty four\. As far as the legal standing of the right to keep and bear arms in this country, it's mixed. The Supreme Court has never made a ruling on the second amendment \per se\. It ruled in the Cruikshank case that the KKK disarmament of blacks wasn't a second amendment violation because (a) it was private citizens disarming private citizens, and (b) the fourteenth amendment didn't make the second amendment apply to the states. The modern Supreme Court has reversed itself on both points with its enforcement of civil rights legislation. The Presser decision merely said that you can't have your private army walk down Main Street armed, without getting a police permit first. (And Presser was carrying a sword, not a gun.) And the Miller decision in 1939 was warped because by the time of the appeal, Miller was dead, and the co-defendant had skipped town, leaving the Supreme Court in the strange position of seeing evidence from only the prosecution; it had no legal choice but to grant the prosecution's petition regarding upholding the federal gun- control law. The Supreme Court \could\ have settled the issue by issuing a summary affirmation of the appellate court ruling in the Morton Grove case; instead, it chose not to hear the case, leaving that ruling without any power of precedent, except in that particular district. In other words, the final word has not yet been spoken -- and given the current make-up of the Court, it must make Handgun Control, Inc., very nervous to contemplate what would happen if a 2nd amendment case \does\ reach the Supreme Court. J. Neil Schulman January 12, 1992 *************************************************************** ------------ Category 4, Topic 35 Message 127 Sun Jan 19, 1992 SOFTSERV [NeilSchulman] at 13:00 EST Barry, Message 126: There is \no\ "limiting prefix" in the Second Amendment. Two prominent, impartial linguistic experts - - one considered the tops in his field -- analyzed the text of the Second Amendment and came to this conclusion. Read Message 72 and 73 in this topic for the full text of their analyses. On the interpretation of the Constitution. Article 9 of the amendments reads, "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." That is instruction from the framers on how the constitution is to be "construed" -- that is, "constructed." Let's see, I just shot you down with facts twice. Shall we make it a shut-out? The Oxford English Dictionary does not give a definition of "well-regulated" but instead gives citations for its use. Here are its citations, which bracket the writing of the Second Amendment: 1709: "If a liberal Education has formed in us well-regulated Appetites and worthy Inclinations." 1714: "The practice of all well-regulated courts of justice in the world." 1812: "The equation of time .. is the adjustment of the difference of time as shown by a well-regulated clock and a true sun dial." 1848: "A remissness for which I am sure every well-regulated person will blame the Major." 1862: "It appeared to her well-regulated mind, like a clandestine proceeding." 1894: "The newspaper, a never wanting adjunct to every well- regulated American embryo city." Find me "regulation" by an outside authority in any of these uses. Now, a reasonable person, when presented with facts refuting their assumptions, will admit that he or she is wrong. Now that you have been publicly refuted, you have several options. You can admit that the Framers unambiguously intended the Second Amendment to protect the right of the people to keep and bear arms. You can abandon facts and reason, and find new ways to restate your argument so that people might get baffled by b*s* and forget the point of the discussion. Or you can just abandon this discussion, and pop up with the same refuted arguments in some other discussion, hoping people might have forgotten. The latter two are what most people in bbs discussions do. How about surprising me? Neil ------------ ------------------------------------------------ (This file was found elsewhere on the Internet and uploaded to the Radio Free Michigan archives by the archive maintainer. All files are ZIP archives for fast download. E-mail bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu)