I am finding something confusing about the 14th Amendment's "equal protection" clause and the RKBA. If we look at the legislative history of the 14th Amendment, beginning with the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, it seems clear to me that the 39th Congress intended to end racially discriminatory gun laws:
"full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and estate, including the constitutional right of bearing arms, are [not to be] refused or denied ... on account of race"
Then came the 1866 Civil Rights Act which seems to have had the same meaning:
"citizens, of every race and color ... shall have ... full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens"
Then the 14th Amendment came along, but it's equal protection clause doesn't regard "citizens" but rather "persons". It says:
"No State shall... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
The way this seems to read, a State cannot have gun laws (or any laws) which discriminate against any person. So, for instance, if a State issues CCW permits, then they have to issue them to any person, and cannot discriminate against people who are not citizens of that State. Or, if an illegal alien wants to buy a gun, he must have an equal right to do so.
Am I reading this wrong? Did the 39th Congress intend to end discrimination against aliens within the scope of "laws and proceedings for the security of person and property" including gun laws? Why else did they say that no State shall deny equal protection to any person rather than saying that no State shall deny equal protection to any citizen?
And why did it change from "laws for the security of person and property" to just "the laws"? It seems obvious that it can't mean what it says, as if all laws must provide equal protection, because that would mean that laws which said that whites could vote and blacks could not vote violated the 14th Amendment, and this seems unquestionably false. Based upon the legislative history, I think that "equal protection of the laws" might really mean "equal protection of the laws regarding the security of person and property i.e. the scope is more narrow than it appears. But I do not see how to construe the word "person" to exclude aliens or anyone else.
