And Helmke accuses us of revisionist history

Back in late October, I posted a YouTube video clip, which at that time (more on that later) had been on the Brady Bunch website. In the clip, the Brady Bunch legal director, Dennis Henigan, waxes hysterical about the Parker v. District of Columbia decision. My interest in the clip stemmed from the fact that when (about one minute into it) Henigan recites the Second Amendment, he leaves out the phrase "of the people." As we all know, the Brady Bunch doesn't like for the right to keep and bear arms to be a right of the people, so they apparently decided to simply omit the Second Amendment's reference to the people.

As David Codrea points out, one of the especially amusing parts (if you like irony, anyway, and I certainly do) of the clip is when Henigan pompously spews the hypocritical admonishment that "It is not appropriate for the courts to edit the Constitution." Along the same lines, the hypocrisy of the Brady Bunch's little cartoon also amused me.

Fast forward to yesterday, when on Helmke's blog, he (or whoever it is who actually does do "his" writing) once again accuses us (gun rights advocates) of leaving out the part of the text of the Second Amendment that he believes makes us uncomfortable.

There is the “Militia purpose” clause, with 13 words. Then there is the “keep and bear Arms” clause, with 14 words. Two clauses and 27 words. This is an uncomfortable fact to those accustomed to reading only half of the Amendment, reciting the last 14 words over and over again as if the first 13 didn’t exist.

The Constitution says they do exist, and so we must read the whole Second Amendment. We must give effect to all of its words – not just the ones we like – to understand what the Amendment means.

Perhaps if Helmke actually still permitted comments on his blog, he would find that we gun rights advocates are perfectly happy to discuss the militia clause with him all day--probably a lot more willing than he would be to discuss the "of the people" part.

But it gets even better. I found out today, via Snowflakes in Hell and Days of Our Trailers, that not only does the Brady Bunch have no compunction about trying to cover up what the Constitution says, when they get called on it, they even try to cover up what they themselves once said--they have disabled the link on their website that leads to the page with Henigan's version of the Second Amendment--and even the video clip is gone from YouTube.

No problem--I suspected they might try something like that, and took precautions:


Considering the funding problems at the Brady Bunch, I wonder if they'll be able to afford all the erasers they'll need to rewrite history to their liking.