“Shall not be infringed” is pretty clear language.
It doesn’t seem to be, since to you it’s obvious that it implies “no regulation at all” and to me it’s obvious that it doesn’t! (Though we seem to be agreed that in fact there should be some regulation of individuals’ rights to own some kinds of weapons.)
So apparently it didn’t forbid individuals [...]
Apparently. Perhaps it never occurred to anyone at the time that there was a substantial possibility of individuals owning such dangerous weapons.
For the poor, or poorly-connected, it amounts to the same thing.
There are probably people for whom imposing a fine on them would leave them no option but to turn to prostitution. If so, does that mean that having laws that impose fines on people is the same thing as enforcing prostitution?
This all seems terribly overstated to me. If you and I enter into a contract that involves my doing some work for you, is that “forced labour”? I mean, it’s certainly labour I have to do, but it certainly isn’t slavery under normal circumstances. (Perhaps if the contract said “OrphanWilde will pay gjm $10, in return for which gjm will do whatever OrphanWilde requires for the remainder of his life”. Such contracts are usually considered invalid.) I don’t see that being required to pay child support is different in kind. It may be unjust or counterproductive, but it’s a far cry from being slavery. (Just as with my example of a contract, it’s possible to imagine cases so extreme that maybe they should be called slavery: e.g., someone is required to pay his ex-wife $1M/year for the next 30 years despite being neither very rich nor possessed of skills anyone wants to pay millions a year for. But I bet that, just as with my example of a contract, those are not realistic cases.)
It doesn’t seem to be, since to you it’s obvious that it implies “no regulation at all” and to me it’s obvious that it doesn’t! (Though we seem to be agreed that in fact there should be some regulation of individuals’ rights to own some kinds of weapons.)
Apparently. Perhaps it never occurred to anyone at the time that there was a substantial possibility of individuals owning such dangerous weapons.
There are probably people for whom imposing a fine on them would leave them no option but to turn to prostitution. If so, does that mean that having laws that impose fines on people is the same thing as enforcing prostitution?
This all seems terribly overstated to me. If you and I enter into a contract that involves my doing some work for you, is that “forced labour”? I mean, it’s certainly labour I have to do, but it certainly isn’t slavery under normal circumstances. (Perhaps if the contract said “OrphanWilde will pay gjm $10, in return for which gjm will do whatever OrphanWilde requires for the remainder of his life”. Such contracts are usually considered invalid.) I don’t see that being required to pay child support is different in kind. It may be unjust or counterproductive, but it’s a far cry from being slavery. (Just as with my example of a contract, it’s possible to imagine cases so extreme that maybe they should be called slavery: e.g., someone is required to pay his ex-wife $1M/year for the next 30 years despite being neither very rich nor possessed of skills anyone wants to pay millions a year for. But I bet that, just as with my example of a contract, those are not realistic cases.)