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This debate was recorded on June 26, 2020, the 12th anniversary of the Supreme Court Heller Decision affirming that the 2nd Amendment applies to individual firearms ownership. Eric Zuesse attacked it last year, and has updated his argument, in part to answer my objections. Eric joins the show to make his case against Heller and the Anti-Federalists, while philosophy professor Peter Simpson responds with a Pro-Anti-Federalist position (if that isn’t an oxymoron).
After considering his arguments, I think Eric may have a reasonably good case against the Heller Decision’s citation of Anti-Federalists and British Common Law. But I think his argument that the 2nd Amendment is the only one of the ten Amendments in the Bill of Rights that does not protect individual rights against the government—but instead merely asserts the right of the government to have an army—is self-evidently preposterous.
What do you think?