It is difficult to understand how the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is now the single most divisive constitutional issue since the abolishment of slavery. When James Madison proposed the amendment in 1791, there was little doubt its purpose was one of sovereignty to create an independent power of authority with the inalienable right to bear arms and protect ourselves from the actions of a tyrannical government.
Why the phrase “A well regulated Militia,” has caused such immense consternation between both proponents and opponents of the second amendment similarly mystifies me. If you are going to fight a war, wouldn’t it make perfectly good sense to possess the right to join with persons of like mind?
In this area of inquiry, much has been made of whether the rights contained in the Bill of Rights are “individual” or “collective” rights. I would suggest the right to join a trained and prepared for action if called upon to do so militia or civilian army is an individual, and quite frankly given the right circumstances necessary to the security of a free State.
Yet, if my logic is correct, the Second Amendment is not about individual rights outside of a larger, societal ultimate check and balance by the People upon possible infringements upon our right too live in a democracy where all political power inevitably begins an ends with our right to live free or die trying.
Do the words of Patrick Henry, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” The freedom to live free or fight, and die for a worthy cause begin to make a different impression? I doubt Patrick Henry, a family man who married twice, with both marriages combined producing a total of 17 children, wanted to die, but he understood the indispensable principal behind all who yearn to be the master’s of their own fate and destiny, freedom.
It may sound circular in logic, but without freedom, including the right to self-determination over mind, body and spirit, and surely without the interference of an oppressive empire or mad Monarch, there can be no freedom, only the sickly thoughts and later regrets of a patriot, old, his life wasted, waiting to die.
The enigmas continue with more misconceptions regarding the extent of the influence on individual gun ownership under the second amendment. Firstly, it was never about creating or maintaining, or expanding the right to carry a firearm while hunting.
At the time of its ratification, the colonists would routinely hunt with weapons and did not require any amendment to do so. A better argument might be made for the second amendment to include a component related to personal defense against those who would do him and/or his family harm.
Yet, has it ever been seriously questioned whether our natural, God-given rights, Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness, includes the right to self-preservation and survival? I am not clear how a dead person would pursue Happiness, constitutionally speaking or otherwise.
As important a right as self-defense is, riddle me this, how does standing your ground and shooting an unarmed teenager have anything to do with the second amendment?
Unless foreign invaders are here to rape, pillage or plunder, what does the second amendment have to do with protecting your personal property? Where does the amendment even allude to a right to shoot anyone who dares touch your belongings?
A great deal of attention is paid to the “what” factors of the second amendment. Due in part too long forgotten usage of archaic words and conveniently loose interpretation, the meaning of “Arms” is often called into contention. Handgun? Rifle? ArmaLite 15? FIM-92 Stinger? Now, only $38,000 a pop (missile only)?
How many “Arms” are you allowed? Enough to fill up the basement of the Branch Davidian’s compound? How many rounds of ammo? Automatic, or semi-automatic?Slice and dice?
Whatever way you cut it, the second amendment was, is and if we come to our senses, but viewed as a remedy for acts of hostility and to protect our rights to seek a more perfect union, insuring domestic tranquility at times of violent social unrest, instability, insurrection, rebellion, invasion, and all-out war.
For I posit all rights under the second amendment are extra-ordinary in nature, emergency rights, and in no manner should they be applied to virtually any run-of-the-mill, petty grievance by invoking the perceived notion that any act offensive to your sense of entitlement leads to accusations of severe, cruel and oppressive treatment at the hands of the now easily re-framed actions of a tyrannical government.
How many times since 2016 have we suffered false accusations of “tyranny!” to find ourselves confronted with a person or persons who justify mob violence as the equivalent of a well regulated militia who are now spouting off about the inevitability of resorting to second amendment remedies if they don’t “get their way”?
Was it an act of tyranny when in the interest of the national health, safety and welfare, the so-called “patriots” among us were asked o wear a mask? Of course not.
Was it an act of tyranny when protestors exercised their first amendment rights for racial justice and police reform? Is domestic vandalism and looting tyrannical acts rising to the level of insurrection and rebellion? No.
Was Kyle Rittenhouse a member of a civilian militia? Ostensibly justified in using second amendment solutions for his own self-protection including reckless homicide and murder? No.
Was losing a legitimately conducted election for president and then repeatedly lying about it without any evidence of fraud, colluding with a gaggle of seditionist congresspersons, and attacking our Capitol Building armed and invoking their second amendment rights with the intent to overthrow our government, including an attempt to hang our Vice-President at the urging and insistence of an usurper bent on retaining power at all costs, the actions of a very poorly organized militia following the orders of a tyrant? Or, more importantly, does our AG think so?
On May 24, 2022 a lone gunman at Robb Elementary School in a small, rural town in Texas opened fire and killed 19 children and two teachers. Three days later, the NRA will hold its annual meeting “down the street” in Houston.
Temper Tyrant Trump, his moldy but top toady Ted Cruz and Grid Abbott will all be there to celebrate Memorial Day and give praise, rejoice and pay homage to the true Kraken, the profitable beast that kills with impunity, the gun.
"Make plans now to join fellow Second Amendment patriots for a freedom-filled weekend for the entire family as we celebrate Freedom, Firearms, and the Second Amendment!”
https://www.nraam.org/
Will there be a moment of silence for the tyrannical victims of Robb Elementary School? Hollow gestures being all the rage these days, but more to the point, nothing of any merit or significance will change.
There will be no serious discussions of common sense gun laws, no concessions to background checks and no thought what-so-ever about how the second amendment somehow allowing anyone and everyone who wants a gun to get a gun.
No thoughts much less mention of defending our country, its citizens and children from slaughter in the interest of the greater good. The greater good being a toxic and inescapable maze of “heroic” sacrifice set up around what is surely no more than a conceptual nightmare straight from the darkest depths of hell.
The eidolon being an individual right, taken from the Constitution, a document of hope, strength, commitment to the greater good in justice, equality and fairness can be employed by evil men to justify, if not glorify, the taking of a single life, in this case, innocent non-combatants who never signed up for the war, therefore invalidating any justification under the second amendment.
The second amendment was never meant to provide easy access to firearms for the sane, insane, or somewhere in the middle, who would use them to commit random acts of violence, killing and death so “patriots” waiting for the uprising, the insurrection, the revolution, will be ready for their day with their precious gun, under the sun.
The second amendment was designed to allow true patriots the right to fight for their country at times of great strife and not to allow common criminals to take the lives of innocent children. It was so back then, as it is now.
This is not a Constitutional battle we can win.
My advice? We need to forget about politics, democrats and republicans, filibusters, rules and procedures. What we need to do is find enough good people, in and out of politics, kind souls who understand the devil is not in the details, but in the hands of every gun owner who is willing to buy, sell, trade, and otherwise defend their “right” to sanctimoniously let children die for their sins.
This we must do or the mass shootings will not stop.
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It saddens me to know that we live in a society where so many of our putative leaders pay tribute to guns and firearms more than they regard a human life. Have we come to the point where we are we waiting for these professed representatives to modify the Second Amendment, against the will of most good Americans, to allow our citizens to carry nuclear weapons to “defend themselves”? Dr. Jaime