Russian Émigré Parliament Includes US-Style ‘Second Amendment’ in Provisional Constitution

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 15 – The third congress of peoples’ deputies, consisting of Russians who were elected by the population but now have been forced into emigration, have adopted a constitution for the transition period ahead. Among its provisions are some drawn from the second amendment of the US Constitution on the right to bear arms.

            The American amendment was long thought to mean that the population needed to own guns so that it could form militias to defend the country should it be attacked, although more recently the Supreme Court has held that that second amendment gives individuals the right to own arms without any reference to militias or national defense.

            Now, the Russian deputies, meeting in Warsaw, have included second amendment language in the constitution they have prepared for Russia’s future. Its language specifies that the right to bear arms is needed “for the defense of the state against attempts at usurpation of power” (idelreal.org/a/32458056.html).

            That language is likely to prove at least as controversial as that of the American second amendment.

            In other actions, the elected Russian officials now in emigration condemned Stalin’s terror famine in Ukraine and Moscow’s “repeated attempts to destroy Ukrainian statehood.” But they remained divided about the scope of an amnesty for Russian political prisoners and how best to take part in “the quasi-elections” the Putin regime plans for later this year and next.