Ethan Allen, was "Originalism and technological changes"

[Scarberry, Mark]

Based on the little I know about Ethan Allen, modern-day gun control
advocates (and maybe all the rest of us, too) would not be happy with his
ownership of military-quality weaponry. I'm afraid he might have more in
common with the militia movement folks of today than we might think. Perhaps
someone on the list can give us a brief sketch of Ethan Allen.

Mark S. Scarberry
Pepperdine University School of Law
mark.scarberry at pepperdine.edu





-----Original Message-----
From: Michael McConnell [mailto:mcconnellm at LAW.UTAH.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2001 7:44 AM
To: CONLAWPROF at listserv.ucla.edu
Subject: Re: Originalism and technological changes

[snip]
(1) The principal historical justification for the Second Amendment was the
prevention of tyranny by ensuring that there would be an armed populace,
capable of resisting the standing army of the central authorities.

(2) The principal current justifications for gun owning are hunting and
self-defense.

(3) Most of us (am I right?) find the prospect of armed quasi-military
groups, like the so-called militia groups, scary rather than
liberty-protecting. Tim McVeigh is a poor substitute for Ethan Allen. [snip]