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If you ask me, there should be no question as to whether or not any Constitutional Article or Amendment be incorporated.
Someone, somewhere, opened the flood gates and this was collectively allowed and now it must be fought in court. Checks and Balance of power is great but it's even better when blatan disregards for what is written occurs less by law makers, interpreters, and enforcers. Of course, I could be reading this all wrong.
A good exampleof the Bill of Rights originallypertaining moreto Congressthan the state legislatures, as well as how incorporation has changed the nature of its application to the states,is the "establishment" clause of the first ammendment. The original purpose of this statementwas toassure Maryland, Virginia, Connecticut and Massachusetts, all ofwhich had constitutionally recognised religions,that the federal government would not establish a national religion which might conflict with their own. Now, rather than protecting the states from federal domination in regards to religion, it is used to expunge religion from all levels of government.
Let mesay that, even though I ambasically a federalistwho believes in the right of the states to self determination, I agree that we are all probably better off with theincorporation doctrine, because the Bill of Rights (as opposed to some of the later ammendments),is universally fundamental to liberty, and, because federalism has allowed the states the freedom to enact some misguidedlaws.State and localgovernments are the ones who,rather than seeing the armed populace as an asset in insuring that the central government does notturn on its people,aremore comfortablewith an impotent poulaceover which they can maintain control. Sadly, the masses have been brainwashed to acceptthisas desirable, asis evidenced bya number of "frightened" citizens whomsomeof the members of this board have encountered, and whoappearently agree that government agents are the onlyindividuals who should be armed. It is also true that, thankfully, it isat the local level where
we have the most power and abilityto affect change.
I do hope that the Supreme Court makes both the intelligent and correct decisionto"save us from ourselves" and find that the second ammendment doesindeed apply to bothstate and municipal governments, but in the long run the most important thing is forus toget behind groupslike the fledglingNCCDL (thanks OpenCarry)and othercivically activemovements because Raleigh is wherewe can bestinsure that our rights are not legislated away.
