Hillary Clinton: “If it is a constitutional right" to keep and bear arms

Not that we weren’t already aware of her anti-gun position, but Hillary Clinton twice refused to answer this week when asked by former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos about her view of the second amendment.

When asked outright if she agreed with the Supreme Court’s Heller decision - “Do you believe that an individual's right to bear arms is a constitutional right — that it's not linked to service in a militia?” her response was to question “If it is a constitutional right…” obviously indicating that although the courts have repeatedly ruled on the topic, she holds no such view.  

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's talk about the Second Amendment. As you know, Donald Trump has also been out on the stump talking about the Second Amendment and saying you want to abolish the Second Amendment. I know you reject that. But I want to ask you a specific question: Do you believe that an individual's right to bear arms is a constitutional right — that it's not linked to service in a militia?

CLINTON: I think that for most of our history there was a nuanced reading of the Second Amendment until the decision by the late Justice [Antonin] Scalia. And there was no argument until then that localities and states and the federal government had a right — as we do with every amendment — to impose reasonable regulations. So I believe we can have common-sense gun-safety measures consistent with the Second Amendment. And, in fact, what I have proposed is supported by 90 percent of the American people and more than 75 percent of responsible gun owners. So that is exactly what I think is constitutionally permissible and, once again, you have Donald Trump just making outright fabrications, accusing me of something that is absolutely untrue. But I'm going to continue to speak out for comprehensive background checks; closing the gun-show loophole; closing the online loophole; closing the so-called Charleston loophole; reversing the bill that Senator [Bernie] Sanders voted for and I voted against, giving immunity from liability to gun makers and sellers. I think all of that can and should be done, and it is, in my view, consistent with the Constitution.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And, and the Heller decision also says there can be some restrictions. But that's not what I asked. I said, "Do you believe their conclusion that the right to bear arms is a constitutional right?"

CLINTON: If it is a constitutional right, then it — like every other constitutional right — is subject to reasonable regulations. And what people have done with that decision is to take it as far as they possibly can and reject what has been our history from the very beginning of the republic, where some of the earliest laws that were passed were about firearms. So I think it's important to recognize that reasonable people can say, as I do, responsible gun owners have a right. I have no objection to that. But the rest of the American public has a right to require certain kinds of regulatory, responsible actions to protect everyone else.

I personally adopted the blog title “Common Sense” in reference to both Thomas Paine’s 1776 publication questioning the authority of the British government, and the thought that too much of today’s politics lacks the common sense and compromise required of our republic.

Today however, it’s become popular to throw around the term “common sense” to imply that anyone that disagrees with you has none. The term is used to proclaim that your position – no matter how extreme – is both common and sensible, and anyone opposing is an extremist. Specifically, it seems that for many politicians, “common sense gun control” means citizen disarmament.

Those on the left inevitably begin their discussions with “I support the 2^nd Amendment but…”  As we all know, the word “but” in a sentence means we should disregard everything that came before it. They then proceed to tell us how they could keep us safe if only they could pass myriad gun control laws.

Hillary Clinton and President Barak Obama have both pointed to England and Australia as examples of good gun control plans, where guns were generally outlawed and confiscated. As a result, violent crime has increased and is substantially higher in Great Britain than in the United States.

In reality, the left generally does not want to believe that the second amendment establishes a right for individual citizens to bear arms for self-protection, and the protection of the country from enemies both foreign and domestic. Most would prefer, in the words of Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) “If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them, Mr. and Mrs. America turn ‘em all in, I would have done it.”