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Debate at the Brookings Institution

Story here.

Benjamin Wittes, a guest scholar at the center-left Brookings Institution, agreed that the Second Amendment "is one of the clearest statements of right in the Constitution," and suggested that those who dislike that ought to try to amend it.

And Prof. Randy Barnett answered that that might encourage people who question the other provisions in the Bill of Rights to take the same approach to Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search, and that they could as easily argue "Sure it was fine that persons should be secure in their papers and effects back in the old days when there wasn't a danger of terrorism and mass murder." That ties in with what he said in my documentary: those who disparage the Second Amendment should remember that the same methodology can be used to disparage the rest of the Bill of Rights: by agreeing to protect the Second, even if you don't like it, you increase the chances the parts of the Bill of Rights you do like will also be secured.