After hosting a CNN town hall on firearms, anchor Chris Cuomo was responding to criticisms directed at him on Twitter, explaining the Second Amendment did not protect an individual’s right to own firearms until 2008.
Cuomo, who is a gun owner, had asked people who opposed banning AR-15 rifles if they would be open to regulating them under the same rules that are in place for concealed carry permits.
When someone replied how the Bill of Rights was not the “Bill of Needs,” Cuomo replied, “Do you remember what the 2a was created for? That there was no individual right contemplated until [Justice] Scalia read it in?” He said if people consider themselves to be original interpreters of the Second Amendment, then an individual’s right to own gun does not apply.
Do you remember what the 2a was created for? That there was no individual right contemplated until Scalia read it in? If you are an originalist about the constitution you have no basis for thinking you and not the state controls access. https://t.co/j5IAC3NTMZ
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) August 8, 2019
Implied nothing. I am asking about why you need it. The argument “if I want it I get it” is not recognized under the law…even Scalia admitted there must be limits. Machine guns were outlawed because there was no need that justified the risk. Was that wrong too? https://t.co/ptzTyEzNwz
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) August 8, 2019
Cuomo was referring the landmark case District of Columbia v. Heller that was decided by the Supreme Court in 2008. In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court said the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to have a firearm without having to serve in a state militia.
Then-Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote for the majority, also said the Second Amendment does not mean it is a “right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”
The Second Amendment states, “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
