‘Justice Scalia maintained, consistent with his originalist philosophy, that ‘the freedom of speech, or of the press’ must be construed in light of how these terms were understood in 1791, when the First Amendment was adopted. He noted the presence of the definite article — ‘the freedom of speech,’ not plain old ‘freedom of speech’ — and argued that the Amendment should be understood as protecting the free-speech rights enjoyed by Englishmen at the time.”

BiteMe’s resident constitutional scholar, H. O. Hell, BS, MS, PhD, agrees with Scalia on this, arguing that the Second Amendment’s protection of  the right to bear arms refers to the arms known to the Englishmen of 1791 — namely muzzle-loading muskets.

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