What they are code for is "having groups of people intimidated into silence by fear of violence is a good thing."
Yup. Mind you, all the people who say them live comfortably in the fantasy that they'd be on the bullying side of things and not the bullied. Because we all know Lincoln that Kennedy well-off Reagan powerful Giffords white folk don't NEVER get shot 'round here!
That made me twitch to type.
even the official explanation for the Second Amendment seems dotty to me: "We enshrined a constitutional right to bear arms because every Government needs to be kept in check by fear of an armed coup."
*grim sigh* That's one of the biggest interpretations, but to be honest? Something of an urban legend. The Second Amendment was written *after* the Constitution, which itself defines treason against the United States in Article 3, Section 3. Now how the hell someone can commit an armed coup against the duly elected Government (election procedures taking up most of Articles 1 and 2) without "levying War against [the United States]" I do not know. As the Confederacy and multiple mini-militias have discovered.
The text of the 2nd is relatively straightforward: "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." The idea that "security of a free state" means "overthrow the state" vs "We will probably need an army at a moment's notice, so our people should be able to have and use guns" takes a wrench and some grease to fit in.
A year later Congress spelled it out far more clearly in the Uniform Militia Code, which boils down to "if y'all are a white man between 18 & 45, you're in the militia and are expected to own and know how to use and maintain this specific armament." It would have probably helped a lot to put the Uniform Militia Code wording into the Constitution.
(Can you imagine what it would be like to have a citizen militia take over? It would be the equivalent of government by Torchwood, and likely just as efficient and safe.)
Interestingly, recent studies have shown that many of our best soldiers today are folk who grew up hunting for food - them and those who grew up in gang-ridden inner cities (i.e., the hunted.) Apparently both groups pay far more attention to their surroundings and notice changes more quickly than their suburban peers. But now I'm really wandering off topic.
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Date: 2012-07-22 12:26 pm (UTC)Yup. Mind you, all the people who say them live comfortably in the fantasy that they'd be on the bullying side of things and not the bullied. Because we all know Lincoln that Kennedy well-off Reagan powerful Giffords white folk don't NEVER get shot 'round here!
That made me twitch to type.
even the official explanation for the Second Amendment seems dotty to me: "We enshrined a constitutional right to bear arms because every Government needs to be kept in check by fear of an armed coup."
*grim sigh* That's one of the biggest interpretations, but to be honest? Something of an urban legend. The Second Amendment was written *after* the Constitution, which itself defines treason against the United States in Article 3, Section 3. Now how the hell someone can commit an armed coup against the duly elected Government (election procedures taking up most of Articles 1 and 2) without "levying War against [the United States]" I do not know. As the Confederacy and multiple mini-militias have discovered.
The text of the 2nd is relatively straightforward: "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." The idea that "security of a free state" means "overthrow the state" vs "We will probably need an army at a moment's notice, so our people should be able to have and use guns" takes a wrench and some grease to fit in.
A year later Congress spelled it out far more clearly in the Uniform Militia Code, which boils down to "if y'all are a white man between 18 & 45, you're in the militia and are expected to own and know how to use and maintain this specific armament." It would have probably helped a lot to put the Uniform Militia Code wording into the Constitution.
(Can you imagine what it would be like to have a citizen militia take over? It would be the equivalent of government by Torchwood, and likely just as efficient and safe.)
Interestingly, recent studies have shown that many of our best soldiers today are folk who grew up hunting for food - them and those who grew up in gang-ridden inner cities (i.e., the hunted.) Apparently both groups pay far more attention to their surroundings and notice changes more quickly than their suburban peers. But now I'm really wandering off topic.