Fact-Check: No, Hillary Clinton Does Not Support the 2nd Amendment

During the third presidential debate, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton responded to a question about Supreme Court and gun rights by saying, “I support the Second Amendment.”

Fact-Check: FALSE

When Clinton made this statement she was responding to a question about the District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) decision: a decision dealing with the foundations of the Second Amendment; the very roots of what it protects.

In the Heller ruling, SCOTUS reaffirmed that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. This decision has become a bulwark against leftists who have spent decades in academia, politics and journalism trying to persuade Americans that the Second Amendment protects a collective right. (If collective, the left could tie gun ownership to service in the militia and bar gun ownership for anyone save those who serve in the militia or today’s military or police forces.)

So Heller is crucial. In fact, it is so crucial that it is not be a stretch to say the entire Second Amendment rests on it. Yet Hillary disagrees the Heller ruling. Her spokesman Josh Schwerin said Hillary believes Heller was “wrongly decided.” 

So how can a woman who does not believe in an “individual” right to keep and bear arms support the Second Amendment? She can’t.

Incidentally, Clinton made this point evident during the debate when she said her disagreement with the Heller decision was the way the SCOTUS applied the Second Amendment in that case. For those of you who may not know, Heller centered on Washington DC’s gun ban–which was subsequently struck down via the SCOTUS decision. 

To oppose the application of the Second Amendment in Heller is to oppose the fact that a gun ban was overturned. That is not supporting the Second Amendment. 

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.