The ACLU and the 2nd Amendment

In a post below broadly praising the ACLU, I made a passing reference about that organization's continued denial that the 2nd Amendment exists. In comments, JoeF suggested that the NRA doesn't need any help on this issue. (Incidentally, I am a member of both).

Now there's no denying that the NRA has made defending the 2nd Amendment a main focus, and it is a very powerful group. But does anyone believe that the primary reason the ACLU doesn't do any 2nd Amendment advocacy (or even mention it on their website) is that the NRA already has it covered? I sure don't.

An organization whose motto is "Defending the Bill of Rights" ought not pick and choose which of those rights to defend. I'm not even demanding that they take a particular position on the 2nd Amendment. I just don't like that they pretend it doesn't exist.

For fun, I ran a search on their website for "the right to bear arms." The only relevant result:

The Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution

I think that's telling.

UPDATE: I spoke too fast. I dug a little deeper and found an archived position paper on the ACLU's website:

The ACLU has often been criticized for "ignoring the Second Amendment" and refusing to fight for the individual's right to own a gun or other weapons. This issue, however, has not been ignored by the ACLU. The national board has in fact debated and discussed the civil liberties aspects of the Second Amendment many times.

We believe that the constitutional right to bear arms is primarily a collective one, intended mainly to protect the right of the states to maintain militias to assure their own freedom and security against the central government. In today's world, that idea is somewhat anachronistic and in any case would require weapons much more powerful than handguns or hunting rifles. The ACLU therefore believes that the Second Amendment does not confer an unlimited right upon individuals to own guns or other weapons nor does it prohibit reasonable regulation of gun ownership, such as licensing and registration.

I don't think that's an entirely undefendable position, though I think it suspicious that the ACLU of all organizations would consider one of the amendments to be granting a collective right. I am glad to hear at least that it is a topic that has been frequently debated. Still I do have problems with some of their reasoning:

Unless the Constitution protects the individual's right to own all kinds of arms, there is no principled way to oppose reasonable restrictions on handguns, Uzis or semi-automatic rifles. If indeed the Second Amendment provides an absolute, constitutional protection for the right to bear arms in order to preserve the power of the people to resist government tyranny, then it must allow individuals to possess bazookas, torpedoes, SCUD missiles and even nuclear warheads, for they, like handguns, rifles and M-16s, are arms. Moreover, it is hard to imagine any serious resistance to the military without such arms. Yet few, if any, would argue that the Second Amendment gives individuals the unlimited right to own any weapons they please. But as soon as we allow governmental regulation of any weapons, we have broken the dam of Constitutional protection. Once that dam is broken, we are not talking about whether the government can constitutionally restrict arms, but rather what constitutes a reasonable restriction.

But wouldn't this apply equally to speech? Can you imagine the ACLU making this its basic position on the 1st Amendment?

Unless the Constitution protects the individual's right to engage in all kinds of speech, there is no principled way to oppose reasonable restrictions on newspapers, protests, or flag burning. If indeed the First Amendment provides an absolute, constitutional protection for the right to freedom of speech, then it must allow individuals to cry fire in a crowded theater, commit libel and defamation, and threaten and harass with impunity. Yet few, if any, would argue that the First Amendment gives individiuals the unlimited right to freedom of speech. But as soon as we allow governmental regulation of any speech, we have broken the dam of Constitutional protection. Once that dam is broken, we are not talking about whether the government can constitutionally restrict speech, but rather what constitutes a reasonable restriction.

That sounds about right, but you don't see the ACLU giving up its strident defense of the 1st Amendment. I think there's obviously something else going on here.