Maine, an excellent State Constitution Section on RKBA

[BigFatKen]

I posted a question in rifles and one of the responding members had this for a sig line:

Brother in Arms
Location: Maine

" Every citizen has a right to keep and bear arms and this right shall never be questioned."

Section16, Maine constitution

This made me think on why it was put in with so much care and so few words. It makes the "well regulated" part of the Second Amendment downright ambigous by it's brevity and clarity.

I know there was a Missouri Compromise and Maine was the other State. (Common trivia question). It was mostly about Slaves but I'm wondering how such a clear RKBA Section got put into their Constution.

Were there rumblings about the Second Amendment being poorly written by 1820? Are there other States with such clear wordings?



The actual page is here:Maine Constitution
On a far lessor note, it is a well written piece of web page work. The Federal pages I have to deal with are commonly.... well..... "close enough for Gov'ment work" as people say.

Ssg Ken Henkel US Army (Ret.)
(My "cover" as BigFatKen was blown a long time ago.)



__________________

 

[ptmmatssc]

Being in Maine myself , I do quite like the way our state constitution doesn't mince words and is pretty straight forward. First section says it all to the nay sayers about a person's right to defend themselves (in MY state anyway) .




Declaration of Rights. Section 1. Natural rights. All people are born equally free and independent, and have certain natural, inherent and unalienable rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and of pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness.

Section 2. Power inherent in people. All power is inherent in the people; all free governments are founded in their authority and instituted for their benefit; they have therefore an unalienable and indefeasible right to institute government, and to alter, reform, or totally change the same, when their safety and happiness require it.

 

[romma]

Connecticut

SEC. 15. Every citizen has a right to bear arms in defense of himself and the state.

 

[HiWayMan]

The beautiful coast of Maine suddenly doesn't appear quite so rugged......do right homey, actually.


Ohio....amendment of 1851....State Bill of Rights

"Sec. 4. The people have the right to bear arms for their defence and
security; but standing armies, in time of peace, are danger-
ous to liberty, and shall not be kept up; and the military
shall be in strict subordination to the civil power."

 

[Sistema1927]

New Mexico (1911, just prior to statehood in 1912):

Section 6. No law shall abridge the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms for security and defense, for lawful hunting and recreational use and for other lawful purposes, but nothing herein shall be held to permit the carrying of concealed weapons.

Note that our courts have ruled that the legislature has the right to permit the carrying of concealed weapons (not granted by the Constitution, but not prohibited either). Thus we now have CCW. Even prior to the enactment of CCW we could carry concealed loaded weapons on our property and in our vehicles, and could carry unloaded concealed weapons most other places.

More wordy than Maine, but I think that it makes the point.

 

[ryan in maine]

well, most of Maine is the simple life. why not a simple RKBA?