That Warren Burger Quote Gun Grabbers Love Is Ahistorical — Not To Mention Sort Of Fake

I don’t know how often people have fallen for this alleged. Get a quote From the late “conservative” Justice Warren Burger is now on my social media channels:

The gun lobby’s interpretation of the Second Amendment is one of the greatest pieces of fraud — I repeat the word ‘fraud’ — on the American People by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime. The real purpose of the Second Amendment was to ensure that state armies — the militia — would be maintained for the defense of the state. Every argument that the Second Amendment was meant to give every citizen unrestricted rights to any weapon is a lie.

If you’re caught in the middle of a debate over Second Amendment, you will soon learn that Burger believed that individual rights to gun ownership were one of the fundamental rights. “greatest pieces of fraud” It was committed against the American people. Burger’s line is ubiquitous—it can be found in The New Yorker, Slate, Politico, NPREvery major newspaper and every piece by an anti-gun columnist.

The problem with the online version of the quote is that it has been compiled from three different sources to increase its impact. Don’t get me wrong: Burger is mistaken in all instances, but he is mistaken in different contexts.

The second problem is that the quote often reads as if Burger—the “conservative” Who voted with most in Roe v. Wade—offered this argument as a member of the Supreme Court. The Second Amendment has never been defined by any high court decision as anything other than an individual right. Burger did not speak a word about Second Amendment during his time on the court.

In that regard, he has never issued a gun ruling in any court or written a legal paper. It is evident.

But then, there’s the “collective right” Theory was not a new concept, and Burger adopted it. It’s not an easy one to sell to anyone interested in history.

Nearly all of the intellectual, political and military leaders of the founding generation were there, including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin, George Mason, Samuel Adams, George Washington, Patrick Henry, James Madison, and so forth. Is on record defending an individual’s right of bear arms. It is the only record that anyone from that era has ever challenged this notion.

The quote about the gun lobby is taken however from a 1991 PBS interview Burger incorrectly argues that the 18th century conception of “well regulated” It was the same as the current one. The idea that the state, and less the federal government, would have the ability to do so was not supported. “regulate” A person would not have known what type of weapon you had in 1789. “Well regulated” It is a well-organized militia that acts as a police force, not a rabble.

Burger maintains that Burger is merely a messenger.