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Ash writes: "Laurence Tribe, well-known as a liberal scholar, concludes that the right to bear arms was conceived as an important political right that should not be dismissed as 'wholly irrelevant.' Rather, Tribe thinks the Second Amendment assures that "the federal government may not disarm individual citizens without some unusually strong justification."

Mourners arrive at the funeral service for 6-year-old Newtown shooting victim Noah Pozner in Fairfield. (photo: Dylan Stableford/Yahoo! News)
Mourners arrive at the funeral service for 6-year-old Newtown shooting victim Noah Pozner in Fairfield. (photo: Dylan Stableford/Yahoo! News)


A Response From Laurence Tribe in the Wake of Newtown

By Marc Ash, Reader Supported News

18 December 12


Reader Supported News | Perspective

In the wake of the breathtaking tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, with a dialog in earnest on gun control and the second amendment taking shape, I reached out to Harvard's preeminent constitutional law scholar Laurence H. Tribe. What follows is my inquiry, and Professor Tribe's response in its entirety. - Marc Ash/RSN

rofessor Tribe,

With a newly energized debate about the second amendment unfolding I wonder if you would add anything to the following:

<< Tribe, well known as a liberal scholar, concludes that the right to bear arms was conceived as an important political right that should not be dismissed as "wholly irrelevant." Rather, Tribe thinks the Second Amendment assures that "the federal government may not disarm individual citizens without some unusually strong justification."

Tribe posits that it includes an individual right, "admittedly of uncertain scope," to "possess and use firearms in the defense of themselves and their homes."

None of Tribe's new thinking changes his view that gun-control measures are "plainly constitutional," but his shift has been enough to anger gun control advocates. >>

http://www.saf.org/TribeUSA.html

Assuming that you are quoted fairly above, the individual right would seem to be at odds with gun-control measures that are "plainly constitutional".

I think it's a fairly safe bet that the second amendment will be central to the coming dialog.

December 17, 2012 9:44:49 AM EST

"Marc,

My conclusions about the scope of the Second Amendment, as expressed on pgs.894-903 of the 3d edition of my constitutional law treatise (2000), were explained at very considerable length in that book, were couched in a deliberately tentative form, have been refined over the past decade, and can't be quickly summarized, although I certainly believe that restricting the kinds of high-powered weapons and ammunition that made possible the horrific slaughters of innocent children and others in recent days and months is well within the power of government even as the Supreme Court has misguidedly interpreted the Second Amendment in Heller and McDonald, purporting to be guided by the original meaning of the text but in fact being driven by an incoherent mishmash of non-originalist considerations.

In my treatise, I expressed the view that constitutional interpreters who are uncomfortable with what I called "constitutional time travel," in which Reconstruction Era developments could retroactively change the meaning of Founding Era constitutional provisions - and that would certainly include the most "conservative" members of the current Court - ought to conclude that the only "individualistic right to keep and bear arms" (that is, the only right to keep and bear arms independent of the organized militia) is a limited right of self-defense that people may exercise vis-�-vis state and local "efforts at disarming people," a right derived from the Fourteenth Amendment rather than the Second, but that "federal gun control legislation [is] essentially invulnerable under the Second Amendment provided the state militia [is] not undermined." P.902 n.221 (italics in original).

It badly distorts the meaning of everything I have written on the subject to treat me as remotely hostile to the comprehensive national regulation of firearms and ammunition possession, transfer, and use; and it even distorts my meaning to regard my views as similar to those that the Roberts Court has expressed on the subject, although I hasten to add that even this Court's unfortunate views leave very substantial room for close regulation and even prohibition of entire categories of dangerous firearms and the ammunition that makes them lethal. The fact that many of my fellow gun control proponents were disappointed by the nuanced character of what I wrote in 2000 shouldn't be allowed to distract from my continuing conclusion that the Constitution permits, and that sane public policy demands, vastly stricter firearms regulation than exists in the United States today."


Marc Ash is the founder and former Executive Director of Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

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0 # Anagnorisis 2011-05-01 10:54
Live by the sword, die by the sword; live by deception, die by deception.
 
 
+5 # Activista 2011-05-01 11:46
mathaba.net/news/?x=626593
retrospective that "free World" propaganda is censoring.
NATO killed son and his 3 GRAND CHILDREN.
In 1986 Reagan killed his adopted baby daughter - Hana.
This is TERRORISM - Killing Gaddafis Grandchildren - NATO, OBAMA ... British royalty - sick "western civilization"
 
 
-1 # Activista 2011-05-01 12:45
"live by deception, die by deception" - NATO and Obama:
NATO (Obama) not targeting Gaddafi, just his grandchildren.. .Impeach Obama. ...
 
 
+5 # propsguy 2011-05-01 17:40
UN security council resolution, which authorised military actions to protect civilians.

so how is killing someone's son and three kids under age 12 protecting civilians exactly?

how does blowing up a house in a residential neighborhood constitute protecting civilians?

everyone is a war is a murderer, let's face it. they all think they're the good guys and they all think the other guys are the bad guys- they're all wrong
 
 
+4 # timp 2011-05-01 17:56
It is the beginning of a slippery moral slide when we justify the killing of children.
 
 
+1 # rf 2011-05-02 05:07
You might want to fool yourself that war can be fought without civilians getting killed, but the reality is they always do get killed, even if you don't see it on the TV news!
 
 
+5 # rm 2011-05-01 19:09
It is about time that the UN authorized bombing of London, Paris, Rome, and Washington, DC in order to save civilian lives. Clearly the greatest threat to Libyans and all people of the earth is the rogue militaries of the US and NATO. These warriors kill more civilians each year than all other government on earth combined. Maybe a good dose of bombing of US, British, French, and Italian capitals and a few dead children of the leaders there would teach them a valuable lesson.
 
 
+2 # Activista 2011-05-01 20:59
what made me really sick was celebration of "our democrats" - from anti Qaddafi tribe.
And this was 2nd targeted bombing of Qaddafi in 2 days.
NATO (Obama) IS not targeting Gaddafi, just his grandchildren ..
 
 
+2 # rm 2011-05-02 06:44
Activista -- if you were made sick by these celebrations, check out the WashPost's photos of the celebrations for Osama's murder.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/nation-reacts-to-osama-bin-ladens-death/2011/05/02/AFEpl8VF_gallery.html?hpid=z3#photo=1

Since 9-11 America has developed a cult of death. Americans like the ignorant assholes in the Post photos seem ecstatic over the announcement that their president has personally order the murder of another human. The US is, indeed, a sick nation.
 
 
+1 # Activista 2011-05-02 09:16
Old sick man Osama was killed by Obama - and we USA is celebrating.
We live in celebrity symbols - far from reality. It is SICK.
I will celebrate when we will get out of Afghanistan. War got US bankrupt - think that it is too late anyway. Going way of SSSR.
 
 
-1 # mtnview 2011-05-02 08:10
Gaddafi knew he was a wanted man, in danger from his own people as well as NATO forces. He choose to be with his family for a celebration, putting them in danger-- an arrogant move.
Yes, it is sad when innocents die. Yes, it should be avoided whenever possible. But in this situation, Gaddafi once again placed himself above the rules, and the death of family members is the result.
Try to remember, this is a leader who has brutalized his own people, bombed his own people when they resisted oppression. Gaddafi has been a threat to freedom, ours and theirs, for more than 30 years.
As a liberal, I do recognize there are some people who are so evil they simply need to be removed. Assasination is a viable strategy, requires fewer deaths than a war, and does not inflict great devastation on civilians. The only regret here is that once again, Gaddafi survived.
 
 
+1 # Activista 2011-05-02 09:19
Please learn:
mathaba.net/news/?x=626593
facts that "free World" propaganda is censoring.
NATO killed son and his 3 GRAND CHILDREN.
In 1986 Reagan killed his adopted baby daughter - Hana.
"there are some people who are so evil they simply need to be removed. Assasination is a viable strategy ..."
 
 
+2 # BoBa 2011-05-04 16:50
NATO is "Killing the kids to protect kids". If they continue with this tempo, there will be no kids to protect.!

How is NATO making difference which kids should be on not to be killed ?

Imagine psychopath taking the gun in your neighborhood and killing three kids because he is "He is angry with something" and other people even government figures supporting his views. NO this is no way forward - Bomber pilot or the one who issued such an gruesome order should be shown in public and charged for crimes in same way as psychopath with the gun. Kids should play whatever they surname or religion is - they have nothing to do with anyone's political views.

This kids are dead now and they will never play again - Do you have children ?
 

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