Response to hack89 (Reply #66)
Tue Nov 7, 2017, 03:51 PM
Star Member hunter (27,174 posts)
69. I can be proactive too.
I don't respect the second amendment as it is now interpreted by the courts, nor do I respect gun fetishes.
Have you ever read a history book about the American Revolution? I asked because knowing what led up to the Constitution (and Second Amendment) will give you an idea of what the writers actually intended.
I'll try to give you a Reader's Digest version. The colonists (Americans) fought to free themselves from what they viewed as a tyrannical government (The British king). The British king didn't want the colonist to be free so he had the British military deal with them. The British military of the day was tough. Well armed. Well trained. And large in numbers. The American military was not as well trained, not as well armed, and not very large in numbers. The colonists had something going for them in addition to the regular military and that was the citizen soldier. You may have heard them referred to as minutemen. They were just regular citizens. Farmers, builders, etc. They used their own weapons. Some had muskets. Some had rifles. Some had shotguns.
In other words, the combination of regular soldiers and
regular citizens (using the same weapons) defeated the British military and freed the colonies from the king's tyranny.
When the guys got together to create the Constitution they had enough common sense to know that despite their best efforts any government could eventually turn tyrannical. They also had the common sense to know that if the government did turn tyrannical the possibility existed that the tyrant would control at least some (if not all) of the military. If the tyrant controls the military the only way back to freedom would fall on the shoulders of the citizens. Because of this the citizens would need to be armed. Not with sling-shots. Not with pea-shooters. They would need to be armed with weapons capable of fighting against a military essentially gone bad.
With that in mind, tell me how the second amendment should be interpreted.