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Just thought I would post my thoughts on what the second amendment is. It may sound ranty in some places mostly against the Brady camp. who feels they need to lie to the people to get what they want. But.......
Firstly, the wording as it appears in the constitution of the United States;
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Many people, especially those who oppose guns (like the Brady Camp.), get the wording wrong, especially the second clause that contains the word people. A militia is an army of the people, and no not the Natl Guard, the second amendment was ratified over a hundred years before the formation on the Guard, and we can be pretty sure that the founding fathers were not alluding to the Natl. Guard. Now to me knowing that a "well regulated militia" is made up of ordinary citizens is enough to say that every American citizen has the right to bear arms. But since most people don't think that logically and say that that has nothing to do with the populace, then we'll notice that there is a comma, meaning a second part to the amendment, not any sort of modifier to the first. The operative word in the second part is people, in other words you and me. Now I don't know how people misconstrue this statement, actually yeah I do, people like the Brady camp. just somehow forget to say the word people and hope no one notices. That phrase doesn't get any more simple "the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." I for one am shocked at how far we have fallen from this, how can that be misinterpreted at all.
Secondly, why the second amendment was written. And oddly enough, the anti-gun people in a way are right, it wasn't written for us to always carry and protect ourselves, not too long ago we didn't need to. It was originally written to give the people the ability to protect themselves for their government, just in case it does what it is slowly doing and becoming a police state. The founding fathers knew that of all the amendments, the second is the only one that can truly stop something like that. Think about it, if the government decided to go communist on us, will freedom of speech save us? Freedom of press? Religion? NO, only the armed citizen will, that is the only amendment that in worse case scenarios will get things taken care of. Back when the amendment was written, crime was next to nothing. Also, hanging was a popular punishment for things that today you would only get a fine for if that, no wonder people learned to do these things, no consequences. As crime went up so did gun use on both sides, criminal and justice. Then bring us to todays day and age, crime is higher than ever (and concealed and open carry laws are actually taking care of that) and we now need to be able to defend ourselves with any means that a criminal can attack us with, including firearms. So granted, the second amendment was written for our protection from the government, we now need it to mean our protection from the people that the government can't or won't deal with in defense of our own lives.
Lastly, I for one don't buy into the whole idea that we can legislate crime out of existence, I'll wake up one day and there will no longer be crime. Some people need to wake up and smell the coffee, that will never happen, as nice as it would be. I don't see why the law in too many instances is on the criminals side, people who can carry concealed are disallowed to in many places they should be as are those who open carry.
Anyway, these are my thoughts and some may sound strange, but I do believe that overall the second amendment is one that allows me to protect myself no matter who it may be, the government, a crazed person, criminal, whoever.
Firstly, the wording as it appears in the constitution of the United States;
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Many people, especially those who oppose guns (like the Brady Camp.), get the wording wrong, especially the second clause that contains the word people. A militia is an army of the people, and no not the Natl Guard, the second amendment was ratified over a hundred years before the formation on the Guard, and we can be pretty sure that the founding fathers were not alluding to the Natl. Guard. Now to me knowing that a "well regulated militia" is made up of ordinary citizens is enough to say that every American citizen has the right to bear arms. But since most people don't think that logically and say that that has nothing to do with the populace, then we'll notice that there is a comma, meaning a second part to the amendment, not any sort of modifier to the first. The operative word in the second part is people, in other words you and me. Now I don't know how people misconstrue this statement, actually yeah I do, people like the Brady camp. just somehow forget to say the word people and hope no one notices. That phrase doesn't get any more simple "the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." I for one am shocked at how far we have fallen from this, how can that be misinterpreted at all.
Secondly, why the second amendment was written. And oddly enough, the anti-gun people in a way are right, it wasn't written for us to always carry and protect ourselves, not too long ago we didn't need to. It was originally written to give the people the ability to protect themselves for their government, just in case it does what it is slowly doing and becoming a police state. The founding fathers knew that of all the amendments, the second is the only one that can truly stop something like that. Think about it, if the government decided to go communist on us, will freedom of speech save us? Freedom of press? Religion? NO, only the armed citizen will, that is the only amendment that in worse case scenarios will get things taken care of. Back when the amendment was written, crime was next to nothing. Also, hanging was a popular punishment for things that today you would only get a fine for if that, no wonder people learned to do these things, no consequences. As crime went up so did gun use on both sides, criminal and justice. Then bring us to todays day and age, crime is higher than ever (and concealed and open carry laws are actually taking care of that) and we now need to be able to defend ourselves with any means that a criminal can attack us with, including firearms. So granted, the second amendment was written for our protection from the government, we now need it to mean our protection from the people that the government can't or won't deal with in defense of our own lives.
Lastly, I for one don't buy into the whole idea that we can legislate crime out of existence, I'll wake up one day and there will no longer be crime. Some people need to wake up and smell the coffee, that will never happen, as nice as it would be. I don't see why the law in too many instances is on the criminals side, people who can carry concealed are disallowed to in many places they should be as are those who open carry.
Anyway, these are my thoughts and some may sound strange, but I do believe that overall the second amendment is one that allows me to protect myself no matter who it may be, the government, a crazed person, criminal, whoever.
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