The 2nd Amendment Thought Police

Over at a financial forum...

P mocking the educational system: "Remember the last time they let kids care about something – they forced poor Nixon to clean up the environment and then we had clean air and water for decades!  Can we afford another 40 years of blue skies and clear waters?  Can we have a nation full of kids who don't want to travel halfway around the World to kill people they don't know?  Can we afford to have a nation of kids who understand what $20Tn of debt is?  No, my friend – this must be STOPPED and the best way to stop it is to stop the ideas from ever forming!"  

We Nattered... P – Yes, best not to let them ever form, as ideas are bulletproof. This is how your suspects might line up and this is how trying to stop ideas might end… Out.

StJL chimed in - "Ideas / Naybob – Ideas are bulletproof except ideas on how to deal with bullets!"

The Nattering One muses... Double entendre indeed. Bullets are a sticky wicket. One can always read DC vs Heller ; US vs Miller ; and US v. Cruikshank to gain further insight into the 2nd amendment.  Once one does this, they learn, its not really about the 2nd amendment at all, its about history repeating itself, but you probably already know that.

Like most rights, the 2nd amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon (bear arms) whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose. Hence, gun control and licensing is legal as it should be, as long as it stays within the construct of the 2nd amendment.

If one is going into battle they should be prepared.  This is why we have boot camp, to weed out the unworthy, because all they will do is get in the way and cost lives, their own and others.  Unfortunately, the 2nd amendment, right to keep and bear arms, gun control issue is tied to that very concept and necessity.

If one knows the genesis then one can proceed in a logical fashion in an attempt to get to the root of the problem, lest they be flailing about and shooting in the dark, pun intended.  Did you know that NOWHERE in the 2nd amendment is an individual right to keep and bear arms spelled out and codified? What is granted by the 2nd amendment?

The Granting...  The 2nd amendment codifies that a PRE EXISTING right shall not be infringed upon.  US v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 542, 553 (1876) , “[t]his is not a right granted by the Constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence. The Second amendment declares that it shall not be infringed …"   WHY and HOW does that right pre-exist?

The Past... Between the Restoration and the Glorious Revolution, the Stuart Kings Charles II and James II succeeded in using select militias loyal to them to suppress political dissidents, in part by disarming their opponents....  And, of course, what the Stuarts had tried to do to their political enemies, George III had tried to do to the colonists. In the tumultuous decades of the 1760’s and 1770’s, the Crown began to disarm the inhabitants of the most rebellious areas. That provoked polemical reactions by Americans invoking their rights as Englishmen to keep arms.  -  DC vs Heller

So, the individual right to keep and bear arms is based upon the history of militias, their formation and utilization and the practice by the ruling class, tyrants, of disarming the populace in order to conquer it with a standing army and suppress further political opposition. This is what had occurred in England that prompted codification of the individual right to have and bear arms in the English Bill of Rights on December 16, 1689.

Sir William Blackstone described this right as an auxiliary right, supporting the natural rights of self-defense, resistance to oppression, and the civic duty to act in concert in defense of the state. Hence, the preexisting right secured as a result of the Stuarts’ abuses was by the time of the founding of this country, understood to be an individual right protecting against both public and private violence. 

The 2nd amendment was adopted into the US Constitution on December 15, 1791, as part of the first ten amendments contained in the Bill of Rights.  Thus, through the constitution, we have extended the unique pre existing right under the English Bill of Rights, later codified not to be infringed upon in the 2nd amendment, to keep and bear arms to defend our country, homes, families or ourselves.

  

The Future... One should never take any right for granted, nor be so careless as to freely give them away. We now have the best funded, trained and armed national military, state, county and city law enforcement departments in the world and a seemingly "big brother" police state to go along with it.  Who if anyone would like to repeal the right to keep and bear arms, or disarm the US populace?  Those in control, the 1%, would love it. History repeats itself and those who cannot learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them over and over again.

The Devil's Advocate... Home and personal protection are the most cited reasons to own a gun. Why should the right to personal protection be limited to only those who can afford arms or a home? Crime is higher in poor neighborhoods and on the street where the homeless live.  Everyone has the right to protection and thus, the government should help those who cannot afford that protection. A government subsidy to provide guns and ammunition to the poor and homeless would save countless billions in policing costs. What would the thought police do then?  Just sayin.

"An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life."  -  Robert A. Heinlein

Pleased to meet you...