Dementing the Second Amendment

Guns, Second amendment. The American Revolution was propounded as the necessary response to tyranny. The Constitution embodies anti-tyrannical principles. Jefferson suggested the need for a revolution every generation because he perceived the danger of power entrenchment. The contortion of the 2nd amendment into license to protect self is antithetical to every thing the founding fathers did.

NRA and all their toadies, handmaidens and the scattered demented and deluded are exactly what Adams, Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, Madison, et.al. were seeking to prevent. They were not anarchists, nor would they have considered themselves proto-libertarians.

The English Civil War fought mid-seventeenth century succeeded by what was the first military coup in the West using an organized army led by Oliver Cromwell. Royal restoration was in 1688. All this was recent stuff in the 1770s and sure as hell was a worry to our founders. It was the failure of the traditional shire militias in Britain that underlies the second amendment. The colonial army under George fought the revolution and won it, not militias. Anyone running around with a gun back then would have been a highwayman; a villain a menace to common safety.

The idea that the writers of the constitution intended the 2nd amendment for personal protection is ridiculous. Yet, this is the consistent basis put out by gun-rights advocates. And, if you want to strictly construct the constitution, then logic should dictate that the only firearms permissible are those available in 1787 when the constitution was passed.