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I guess we can have this conversation for the umpteenth time. It is well established that today's NRA interpretations of the intention behind the 2nd Amendment are not entirely what the founders thought about when it comes to the 2nd Amendment.
Plenty of Federalist Papers entries on this, plenty of quotes from the period, all suggest the duty and right to be armed as a means to being free. All true. However context matters, what they were talking about was the mechanisms of rule in various European nations at the time. Standing armies under effectively, if not literally, royalty was their context of not wanting here. Free, armed, and militia was the context at the time.
No where in the thinking was the concept of turning inner cities and schools into shooting galleries.
In the defense of our founders, no one back then could have envisioned what we see today. Militarization of law enforcement, the concept of leading the planet in arrests and incarceration rates per capita. Business models, technology, and investment that profits by allowing for such rapid capability to harm many in a short period of time. Criminal enterprise that has great profit on supplying the demand for all that government outlaws in some regard.
No founder would be proud of where we are.
One of the wisest things the founders did was realize the Constitution would need to be changed over the course of history. And we've done that several times. Looks like we should be revisiting that effort instead of relying on the chip away intentions of the left going up against the absolute extremism of the NRA.
Plenty of Federalist Papers entries on this, plenty of quotes from the period, all suggest the duty and right to be armed as a means to being free. All true. However context matters, what they were talking about was the mechanisms of rule in various European nations at the time. Standing armies under effectively, if not literally, royalty was their context of not wanting here. Free, armed, and militia was the context at the time.
No where in the thinking was the concept of turning inner cities and schools into shooting galleries.
In the defense of our founders, no one back then could have envisioned what we see today. Militarization of law enforcement, the concept of leading the planet in arrests and incarceration rates per capita. Business models, technology, and investment that profits by allowing for such rapid capability to harm many in a short period of time. Criminal enterprise that has great profit on supplying the demand for all that government outlaws in some regard.
No founder would be proud of where we are.
One of the wisest things the founders did was realize the Constitution would need to be changed over the course of history. And we've done that several times. Looks like we should be revisiting that effort instead of relying on the chip away intentions of the left going up against the absolute extremism of the NRA.