Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, recently left out a key portion of the Second Amendment when speaking.
“The Second Amendment reads, ‘A well regulated militia, being necessary for the security of a free State, the right to bear arms shall not be infringed,’” said Nadler at a committee hearing.
Nadler not only left out the “keep” part of “keep and bear arms,” but he also omitted “of the people.”
The Second Amendment is hardly a mouthful of words; it reads: “A well regulated militia, being necessary for the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
Nadler’s failure to properly read the Second Amendment was swiftly called out by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). “Apologies to ranking member Nadler if this isn’t what he stated, but I think he might have left out some key words when he read the Second Amendment and I’ll read it here,” said Massie before reading the full text of the Second Amendment. “I’m not sure if I heard him say ‘the people,’ which applies to all of the people as we well know.”
Rep. Nadler, who has been a member of Congress for over 30 years, also made headlines in 2022 when he claimed that semi-automatic firearms in common use are a “problem” while he was chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
When asked by Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) if proposed legislation that would ban guns that are in “common use” today, Nadler replied, “That’s the point of the bill,” which is in blatant disregard of the Supreme Court’s Heller (2008) ruling.
But he didn’t stop there.
“To clarify, Mr. Chairman, you’re saying it is the point of the bill to ban weapons that are in common use in the United States today,” asked Bishop.
“Yes, the problem is that they’re in common use,” said Nadler, doubling down on his previous response.
“With more than 24 million potentially banned firearms in common use, these draconian restrictions fall in blatant opposition to the Supreme Court's rulings in Bruen, Caetano v. Massachusetts and D.C. v. Heller. Their refusal to recognize this reality places everyone at risk,” said the NRA Institute for Legislative Action of the bill in question at the time.
