Discussion for article #241473
Actually, just against Democrats and people who support the Constitution, otherwise known as liberals.
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Yep, I agree with that assessment of the Cult of the Second Amendment. These folks seem to believe that liberals are just wusses. Nothing like wannabe bullies to get the blood pumpingâŚthis âcultâ will be taken down.
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I think we fail to appreciate the sense of powerlessness this view reflects at our peril. A lot of conservatives and not a few progressives do not believe revolutionary change using the ballot box is a viable option. When democracy is an expensive luxury reserved for the oligarchy why wouldnât the thoughts of the disempowered turn to 2nd Amendment remedies?
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Personally, Iâd like to start a movement that pushes for Seventh Amendment rights. For those of you unfamiliar with the Seventh Amendment:
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
The meaning is obvious: if someone owes you more than $20 and wonât pay up, you have a Constitutional guarantee to a trial by jury. Thereâs no mention of adjustments for inflation; just $20. Imagine if everyone who was owed more than $20 demanded their jury trial. Imagine taking this to the Supreme Court.
What would the Justices say? After all, itâs an Amendment in the Bill of Rights. Why is it any different from any of the other Amendments? If the Second Amendment means that everyone has the right to carry an AR-15 into the local Starbucks, then the Seventh Amendment means that we need to select a Jury to decide how much youâre neighbor has to pay you when his kid broke your window. Itâs in the Constitution in plain English.
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Well, I always thought the 2nd amendment was means to preserve local militias, mostly in the South, to capture escaped slaves and otherwise keep them in control. Isnât that why the phrase âsecurity of a âfree stateââ is mentioned and not ânationâ or âcountryâ?
âThe Second Amendment was not enacted to provide a check on government tyranny; rather, it was written to assure the Southern states that Congress would not undermine the slave system by using its newly acquired constitutional authority over the militia to disarm the state militia and thereby destroy the Southâs principal instrument of slave control. In effect, the Second Amendment supplemented the slavery compromise made at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and obliquely codified in other constitutional provisions.â
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Iâd like to start an organization dedicated to a full-throated defense of the liberties guaranteed us by the precious Third Amendment. This has gone unnoticed for far too long. The courts have never even had the courage to rule on it!
Whoâs with me?
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Hush now. Youâre crushing their myths about the Constitution. Next thing youâll do is insinuate that those people are more than 3/5 of a person and should be giving equal rights.
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When the time comes for us to use our guns against a tyrannical government:
How will we know that itâs time to start shooting?
Who will give the order to shoot?
Will it be obvious who needs to be shot?
If not, who will instruct us as to whom we should be shooting?
Should someone instruct us, how will we know that the person we should be shooting isnât them?
How will we know when we are done?
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And last but not least, how will we acquire arms equal to those arrayed against us? Active resistance to gun nutters means strutting around and fightenâ against them illegals infiltratinâ our southwestern underbelly.
Or, harassing unarmed and desperate migrants.
Have any of those ammosexuals ever asked an Australian what itâs like to live under total tyranny?
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There is an old story about the power of the jury trial. One election year decades ago the politicians in some major city (I think it was New York, but it could have been Chicago) decided to crack down on hookers by putting them all in jail. The police rounded up several thousand street prostitutes. The hookers figured out they were going to be jailed instead of being fined (the usual punishment) so they all demanded jury trials. They shut down the court system. The prosecutors went back to fines and the politicians decided not to pull that stunt again.
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Itâs ironic that a majority of the current Court insists on original intent and yet doesnât use
original intent when reading the 2nd Amendment.
The Founders feared a standing army and were concerned that the federal government would disarm the state militias. In the late 18th century, militia members housed their weapons in their homes, not in an armory. For this reason, the second amendment reads: âA 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.â
The 2nd Amendment was never intended to allow private citizens who are not members of state militias to have unlimited access to weapons.
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I would suggest that the disempowered who are in the gun cult are reflecting their own disquiet with changing demographics. That is not going to be fixed with soothing words or wailing against the oligarchs. This is the swan song of racism.
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Seriously, Joni, a 9mm will be pretty useless against a government that has tanks, airplanes, drones armed with missiles, satellites to guide them and, as a last resort, nukes. In modern times, no tyrannical government has been overthrown by people waving 9mm handguns or even by semi-automatics. They have fallen by 2 means:
- Non-violent -USSR and the East Block, Marcos in the Philippines, the Shah in Iran
- Rebels armed with serious weapons, often backed by outside forces-Ghaddafy in Libya, Assad in Syria were he to fall.
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Swan song my ass. The oligarchs have been using racism as a tool to suppress both blacks and lower class whites since the rise of the plantation system. They are really good at the âwhy donât you and him hate each otherâ game. That is why the Republican base doesnât turn on the Republican elites. You have to realize who is really the oppressor and how and why they are successful considering how few there are of them.
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Itâs another article entirely, but the myth of the Revolutionary War militia is with us yet. It began as a postwar inflation of the claims of local militias to equality, even superiority, to the regular continental army in fighting effectiveness, allowing local boy home guards to pretend they deserved the respect won by the hardscrabble regulars.
It also played into the claims of anti-federalists who feared a standing army and a military elite.
But in most cases, their performance was of the level cited by Col. Mark Boatner, West Point history instructor and Korean War infantry veteran. He describes Burgoyneâs meeting with his Loyalist advisor Philip Skene, as the regulars and militia confronted him at Saratoga.
Skene suggested packing his men with ten days rations and ammo, breaking out to the north and leaving the stores of his camp behind. The militiaâs looting of the camp would prevent the regularâs immediate pursuit, and their subsequent return home with their booty would cut the pursuers in half.
The longer you consider that, wrote Boatner, the more sense it makes.
After the Bladensburg Races, no one ever suggested militia-regular parity, at least without long training.
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I do know these gun cultists are white, live mostly in former Confederate states, deplore âpolitical correctnessâ, are often caught saying or doing actions they deplore in everyone else, and are either overt in their racism or hide it well. And they are declining in number because folks like me and like you are fighting them. Their numbers are dwindling but probably will never be snuffed out. But Iâm okay with minority status and dwindling. It will be a long swan songâŚbut swan song it is.
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Iâm an independent but I donât usually vote republican. The NRA has blood on its hands for its rabid defense of carnage. And much of my vote is dependent on how my rep. or senator rates with the NRA. Unfortunately I have only one vote but I do have a lap top. And I write to my representatives (House and Senate) and nag them to stop the carnage.
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