Saturday, April 15, 2023

THE MISREPRESENTATION OF THE SECOND AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION

 





 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 


Friday, April 7, 2023

THE LAND OF THE FREE AND THE HOME OF GUN VIOLENCE

 




I am for more strict firearm regulations.  No civilian needs to own a military assault rifle.   

In 1962 when I arrived in Maine people were free to own whatever firearm they desired; and so most men, including myself, owned a deer rifle, a shotgun, and a 22cal rifle.   Few people owned pistols – they weren’t efficient for hunting.   

The Maine law stated you could carry your unloaded rifle or shotgun in a gun rack or exposed on the seat of your car, with ammunition locked in your trunk or glove compartment, provided there was an open hunting season and you had a hunting license. 

I never felt that my right to own a gun was being restricted or that there were any restrictions on my freedom.   Guns were for hunting, and double for home protection if needed (people up here didn’t worry about home invasions – they didn’t happen.)

No kids were ever slaughtered in schools, there were no people shot in grocery stores or churches, and there were no mass murders at concerts.  All this crazy violence came about when George W Bush let the ban on assault weapons expire.   Since that time a certain group of our population have gone gun crazy. 



Children murdered at school by assault weapons!

Assault weapon bands are regularly defeated by Republican legislatures. 

the Ol'Buzzard