There are
two kinds of truths: personal truths and factual truths.
Personal
truths are what we want to be true and therefore choose to believe them as
true.
Factual
truths are truths that can be backed up by facts.
The idea
that the Second Amendment guarantees you the right to own an assault weapon and
conceal carry a pistol is a personal fact.
You may have
the right to own an assault weapon and to conceal carry a handgun, but it has
nothing to do with the Second Amendment.
You have
this right because it is the norm in this country and there are no laws
restricting it.
After the
Revolutionary War, a committee was formed in Congress headed by James Madison
and Alexander Hamilton to determine what the military establishment should be
post-Revolution. The result was an
agreement to establish State Militias.
Understanding
that individuals within these militias would have to furnish their own weapons,
and that there were still some politicians and prominent persons who subscribed
to British laws restricting gun ownership by the population; on December 15,
1791, Congress passed the Second Amendment to the Constitution
codifying the right of gun ownership, guaranteeing that states would be able to
raise an armed militia without controversy.
A well regulated
militia, being necessary for the security of free states, the right of the
people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
The Militia
Act was passed in 1792. It
prescribed the organization of the State Militia and empowered the President to
take command of the State Militia in times of invasion or insurrection.
The
governors of each state would appoint military officers, and these officers
were required to organize and train a local militia “within the bounds such
citizens may reside.”
All males
age 18 to 45, except stagecoach drivers, ferrymen, and members of Congress,
were required by law to participate in their local militia.
Individuals drafted
into militia were required to equip themselves with a rifle, a belt, a knife, 2
spare flints, a box able to contain 24 cartridges, a powder horn, ¼ pound of
gunpowder, 20 rifle balls, a shot pouch, and a knapsack.
The Militia
Act was suspended in 1795 and a new act establishing the United States National
Guard “as the body of the organized militia” was passed.
With the establishment
of the National Guard, the Second Amendment was no longer needed and should
have been repealed.
The second amendment
gives you no right to organize a private militia for insurrection against the
government of the United States, claiming somehow your freedoms are being
violated.
The most
liberal reading you could claim of the Second Amendment is that it guarantees
your right to own a muzzle-loading rifle, ¼ pound of gunpowder, and 20 rifle balls.
Please
repost this paper and call for the repeal of the Second Amendment.
the Ol’Buzzard
