Brady Center attorney opposes popular interpretation, gun violence

The director of the Legal Action Project of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence argued that the Second Amendment is outdated and no longer applies to its original intentions Thursday in the annual Madison Week debate.

Dennis Henigan, an advocate of handgun controls, said "individual rights" activists have completely distorted the intended meaning of the Second Amendment.

"The right to bear arms was fundamentally different in James Madison's time," Henigan said. "The amendment wasn't made to serve yourself, but for the security of a free state. Arms bearing in the Second Amendment was for the sake of the government in an organized militia."

Henigan said that during Madison's time, the United States was a new country with a new government. The Articles of Confederation, which had not given the government enough power to rule effectively, had been abolished and replaced with a strong federalist government.

During the completion of new laws and amendments, many Anti-federalists like Patrick Henry and George Mason, were concerned that the federal government would have too much power and state governments would have too little.

"The Second Amendment was written to address concerns of the Anti-Federalists," Henigan said.

"They feared an army that served the federal government. They saw state militias as a way to fight the government's power."

According to Henigan, James Madison played an integral role in defending the Second Amendment during the Virginia Ratification Convention in 1788.

"Madison said the power to arm militias shouldn't all be federal, but that the states and the federal government should share the power," he said. "The Second Amendment should be a check on the federal government.

Today, the Second Amendment has a meaning that would be unrecognizable to Madison, Henigan said.

He said "to keep and bear arms" has been distorted. He said that in Madison's time "to keep arms" meant the state should have a well-regulated militia for military use and "to bear arms" meant to give oneself for military duty.

Henigan promoted responsibility by gun manufacturers to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of convicted felons.

He said by supporting individual's gun rights, society is giving elected officials less power over gun control.

"If the purpose of the Second Amendment is for citizens to resist government and not self-defense, why not give them the right to have the same weapons as the government, like hand grenades and semi-automatic weapons?" he said. "Where do we draw the line?"

Strong gun control laws and even stronger enforcement of the laws are needed to combat illegal sales of guns, Henigan said. "The Brady Center advocates sensible regulations to reduce the risks guns bring into our homes and communities."

State background checks on all handgun purchases are part of a successful bill passed by the Brady Center.

The center was named for James Brady, who was shot and paralyzed during an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

Gun sales went up after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, according to Henigan.

"This is ironic because the probability of purchasing a gun to actually combat a terrorist threat is minimal, Henigan said. "But when you bring a gun into a home, it is a great threat. The risk for suicide increases five fold and the risk of homicide increases three fold."

The session ended with questions from the audience gathered in Wilson Hall.

"The private ownership of guns does not belong in the Second Amendment," he said.

Senior Carlton Wolfe said, "The Second Amendment is just an area of personal interest to me. As a philosophy issue, it's interesting to see how it is based on positive and negative rights."