This is why we need to ban guns!

[Latrinsorm]

Except that it's not a break with the Constitution at all...it's what it the Constitution says. I know you're not an English professor, Latrin, but even you can't argue any other interpretation of that sentence..."the people" is quite clearly the "militia".

Who's talking about English? I'm talking about the law.

See, back then, people were more afraid of their government than they were of their fellow citizens.

One of the drawbacks of living before the Information Age.

Ever notice how almost the entire document is about what things the government can't do to it's people? "...shall make no law..." "...shall not be infringed..." "No soldier shall..." "...shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue..."

They had a damn good reason, and we're idiots for trying to undermine it in some ignorant attempt to protect us from ourselves.

The first Amendments to stray from the tradition (which you describe very accurately) are the 13th-15th. That seems a pretty successful attempt at protecting us from ourselves, no?

Federalist 81? 84? I forget.

Basically, Hamilton's main argument was that the Bill of Rights was unnecessary, because the Government wasn't allowed to do anything that wasn't expressly granted in the Constitution. His fear was that if we enumerated certain rights, and tried to define them, the government would eventually find ways to work around them and minimize them.

Hmm.

It's fascinating to see all the places people of your ilk read the word "expressly" where it does not exist. First the Tenth Amendment, now Fed. 84. This one is especially so because it was written by the man who personally created the legal argument for implied powers in the Constitution:

"But how much is delegated in each case, is a question of fact, to be made out by fair reasoning and construction, upon the particular provisions of the Constitution, taking as guides the general principles and general ends of governments. It is not denied that there are implied well as express powers, and that the former are as effectually delegated as the tatter."

You want to be a literalist, okay, but Hamilton is not your guy. Right now you're Ronald Reagan singing Born in the USA.