Pretend you’re an English teacher, even a mediocre one…perhaps English is your second language, you might even be from outer space. What does this say?
“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.["
Now we what this MEANS because great thinkers -- among them guys like Scalia, Thomas, Roberts and the NRA -- know exactly what long-dead men writing in the 1700s were thinking, but what does this say?
If the people who know what the long-dead men in the 1700s were saying are correct-- and of course they are -- what grade would you give the writer for writing such a shoddy bit of law?
The People
I would give them a failing mark.
What’s the subject of this sentence? (I’ll help.) It is “militia.” The direct object, if I am correct, is “state.” And now wait…am I a people or a person? Seems that well-educated guys, even the long-dead ones, would be careful to get that clear and right, but never mind.
The sticky point, as I see it, is the fact that “states” have pretty much always maintained armies and had guns and such. Then of course there is the tradition of the Minutemen, so important to kicking British ass, that it is obvious that the long-dead Founding Fathers meant you and I should have a (French-loaned) Charleville Musket in our closet.
Of course today we have Minutemen of a different sort that will do the ass kicking for us and Thomas Jefferson never imagined a 50 mm rifle, but we the people still need to maintain a militia, right, one person at a time?
If the Founding Fathers — as godly as they were — had meant we should have unlimited access to guns wouldn’t they have been godly smart and anticipated assault weapons? Shouldn’t the Second Amendment says so? Why not? These guys knew what was best for us today and forever, why didn’t they be more thorough?
I don’t know…more benign rights like voting are up for debate. Why is voting a right that isn’t as sacred as owning a killing tool?
I am close to being judgmental and saying something about stupidity and gun lust…the people that is…and of course — of course! — I don’t feel that way. So I will just wrap things up here.
(I do, by the way, have a hunting rifle and a shot gun, both gifts from my father, and I wouldn’t mind a bit if I had to get a license or registration to keep them.)
He’s so smart! And cute, too.
Related articles
- Obama must now make gun control his legacy (newstatesman.com)
- Thoughts on the American Second Ammendment (the Right to Bear Arms) (sleaf62.wordpress.com)
- The History of the Second Amendment (anthonycollebrusco.wordpress.com)
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | Antonin Scalia, Charleville Musket, Firearms, Guns, Minutemen, National Rifle Association, NRA, Rights, Second Amendment, Second Amendment to the United States Constitution
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