Now, before anyone thinks I support/do not support certain criminally or mentally incapacitated individuals owning firearms, please allow me to put this in perspective: this is the intent of the Framers regarding the Second Amendment. These other aspects of excluding some people create consensus/dissent based on their constitutional merits. I don't want to get involved in a debate on these aspects. I stand by my opinions on this aspect of the Second Amendment. I will say this: Not all crimes are identical, even though they may be coded the same. Mental illness is a medical problem and, as I understand it, can be treated effectively. Given this exhaustive follow-up of discussions, I have concluded that I believe these individuals should have this fundamental right carefully examined for individual exercise based each on their own merits, through a full examination, then a decision rendered, based on such evidence gathered, if they should have their rights reinstated, or not. Some states provide that such persons, through a codified statute, may ask the court to rule. That's all I'll say on this matter. Please respect my privacy of opinion up to this point. I will extend the same courtesy to everyone. Almost literally all of the evidence provided by the Founding Fathers shows that there was a consensus on what the original intent and original meaning of the Second Amendment was. The Second Amendment was written to keep power in the hands of the people. His intent was to ensure that every person could take up arms and join with other peoples to fight tyrants, invaders, or unjustified insurrections. Its meaning was that the government could not infringe on people's right to keep and bear a...... means of paper... one particular right, the 2nd Amendment, has been distorted over the years to mean all 'nothing other than the right of individuals to bear arms. The term “well regulated” is a clear example of misinterpretation. As I said in the seminar, when you read a text that is not written today, you must read it using the vocabulary of the time, the meaning of the words, the structure, the original intent. At the time it was written, the word regulated was synonymous with provided. All settlers were militiamen, and in many states, this is still true today. Would the framers add a Bill of Rights to the Constitution to protect the sovereign? At all. The first 10 amendments clearly assert the rights of people and not governments, and those rights trump those of the government because they are inalienable. "The Natural Rights of Man" (1788, Thomas Paine) in verse on the tyranny of government.