Except it's not a constitutional right. It's a protection of our natural right to keep and bear arms. We don't get our rights from the constitution or government.
Edit:
I always stress this point as I hope more and more people realize we don't get our rights from the constitution/government. Here is some text from the ruling in which, in my opinion, they state it more correctly (emphasis added by me):
(1) It is undisputed that petitioners Koch and Nash—two ordinary, law-abiding, adult citizens—are part of “the people” whom the Second Amendment protects. See Heller, 554 U. S., at 580. And no party disputes that handguns are weapons “in common use” today for self-defense. See id., at 627. The Court has little difficulty concluding also that the plain text of the Second Amendment protects Koch’s and Nash’s proposed course of conduct—carrying handguns publicly for self-defense.
I believe that:
(c) The constitutional right to bear arms in public for self-defense is not “a second-class right, ...
would have been better worded as:
(c) The constitutional protection of the right to bear arms in public for self-defense is not a protection of “a second-class right,...
Thomas does say in his opinion that the 2nd amendment codified a pre-existing right.
i) Respondents’ substantial reliance on English history and custom before the founding makes some sense given Heller’s statement that the Second Amendment “codified a right ‘inherited from our English ancestors.’ ”
And here:
We looked to history because “it has always been widely understood that the Second Amendment . . . codified a pre-existing right.”
Except it's not a constitutional right. It's a protection of our natural right to keep and bear arms. We don't get our rights from the constitution or government.
Edit:
I always stress this point as I hope more and more people realize we don't get our rights from the constitution/government. Here is some text from the ruling in which, in my opinion, they state it more correctly (emphasis added by me):
I believe that:
would have been better worded as:
(c) The constitutional protection of the right to bear arms in public for self-defense is not a protection of “a second-class right,...
Thomas does say in his opinion that the 2nd amendment codified a pre-existing right.
i) Respondents’ substantial reliance on English history and custom before the founding makes some sense given Heller’s statement that the Second Amendment “codified a right ‘inherited from our English ancestors.’ ”
And here:
We looked to history because “it has always been widely understood that the Second Amendment . . . codified a pre-existing right.”