People’s right to keep and bear arms
Pille Põiklik · Journal of Language and Politics · 2016
The article presents an analysis of the majority and minority opinions from the Supreme Court of the United States issued onDistrict of Columbia v. Hellerin 2008. The court case addressed the meaning of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution that establishes gun rights in a famously confusing wording. The analysis applies parts of Fairclough and Fairclough’s (2011, 2012) model of analysing argumentation and also discusses intertextuality to account for how the justices construct their arguments. The analysis shows how the justices shape their arguments on the basis of their values and beliefs, presenting contradictory readings of the amendment, sources of evidence and the preferred application of the amendment.