After reading this article the other week about the Supreme Court's decision to overthrow DC's ban on handguns in favor of the Second Amendment, it got me thinking, why do we have a right to bear arms; to have guns?
Yeah, the Second Amendment states that we as individuals have a right to have weapons, I'm guessing to "defend" ourselves if need be. But in 2008, with all the gun violence we're accustomed to these days, is an amendment which was drafted in 1791 still applicable today? I mean, let's be real, people of yesteryear weren't always as civilized and forward thinking as we are (should be) today. Lynching used to be legal. I mean the world was a highly different place back then than it is now and I don't really see where this right to bear arms has really, truly benefited us.
And has it? Do guns really protect you from anything? I've always felt it doesn't. Guns, in my opinion serve one purpose and that is to kill. Owning a gun, to me, means you are ready to shoot someone. They don't defend anything, they simple injure and take lives away. Believing this is so, I have to wonder why we would decide that we need this right to being with?
I'm also of the just-cause-it-was-written-centuries-ago-by-presumably-wise-men,-don't-make-the-word-bond-or-absolute-truth mind frame. I mean, people did used to think the earth was flat until it was proven otherwise.
Perhaps, this amendment is a bit archaic. I personally believe that outside of official officers and military NO ONE should be allowed guns.
But We The People say different.
*sigh*
3 comments:
I flet the same way about guns for a while. But then I moved to coastal Georgia. The day I moved there... (from Baltimore).. a lil old lady told me to be careful, because the murder rate was really high. 30 murders that year. hhhaaa... 30... coming from DC and Bmore, I felt like that was a vacation. But the funny thing was that guns were legal in Georgia. Not only was it legal to own a gun, but you can carry a concealed weapon anywhere bu in a bank or a night club.
But it gets worst.. I can honestly say there were about four occasions where I witnessed fights in the street, and once of the guys' guns falls from the back of their pants. And the fight pauses as the guy picks up his gun, tucks it back in his hip, and they continue their fist fight.
Then there was the time some guys broke into my apartment while I wasn't home. The crazy thing is that the white girl from Colorado who lived above me, chased the guys away with her glock.
So, when I moved back to DC I realized something about guns and communities. In coastal Georgia, you still had criminals, drug dealers, and people beafing over what part of town they lived. But, most of the decent people living their were never bothered by the knuckle heads. Why? Because it was likely that lil old lady who warned me about crime in Georgia had a bigger gun that the "Thug."
People also had the right to bear arms back in a day where there wasn't as organized a system of dealing with crime as well as using guns for hunting/surviving. Now we have the police/fbi/national guard. And we can go to to the store for food and mall for clothes. In todays world there simply is no practical use for guns except as a sport (which hunting now has become) and hurting/killing people. I wish they would repeal this one but the fear I guess also is, if they open up the door to repeal one they can open up the door to repeal others (like freedom of speech or just plain freedom!)
This may turn into a lengthy explanation of support for the Second Amendment because we have to travel back to the time of the presumably-wise-men, back even before the time of William the Conqueror.
It was a time when every man in Britain was required to be armed and defend his land from invaders.
It was a time when there was balance between the rulers who needed the fealty of the Subjects and encouraged, nay, enforced the law that males be proficient in the use of arms.
Richard II even banned the game of horseshoes so the folks would spend more time practicing archery.
Halcyon days, indeed, for modern patriots concerned with the ever increasing power of the central government.
That symbiotic relationship of ruler and Commoner changed in the 17th century when Papist intervention, Royalist need for more money and Parliament's greed for power resulted in the Commoner's getting squeezed hard.
King Charles I, during the early days of England's Civil war, attempted to collect the weapons held by Londoners and those who lived in London's suburbs.
After Charles I was put to death, Parliament started wondering about the wisdom of an armed populace themselves and they came up with a very unpopular Militia Act. It was designed to end their reliance on the militia, eliminate the power it gave the Commoner and rely instead on a full-time army.
Fast forwarding through very difficult times, replacement rulers, William and Mary (yes, those same familiar to B'moreans everywhere) agreed to a Bill of Rights that recognized the individual's right to bear arms.
In fact, the leadership of the political party popular with the people at that time, the Whig's, argued that the very basis of political freedom was individual ownership of arms, formation of a citizen's militia and the limitation of a standing army.
The men who founded our Country were well aware of the dangers of life according to tyrants. It was very recent history to them and that is why they included separation of Church and State (which has been bastardized) the right to bear arms and the assumption of a militia (which has been bastardized) and the establishment of the sovereingty of the individual over the state (which has been utterly bastardize.)
I hope that little bit of history provides you with another view of why We the People still need the right to bear arms. There are many dangers this 'modern' civilization throws at us... gangs, individual criminals and crazies but there is absolutely no greater threat to our liberty and freedom than the statist tyrants hiding in the shadows working to disarm America and constantly manipulating unfortunate, disasterous events to further their agenda.
My name is John Ryan and I wrote this message.
Contact goldmetalmaniac@yahoo.com for more information.
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