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Old 03-09-2014, 09:50 AM   #116
Perfectlap
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lobo1186 View Post
Intent... Intent is so important but impossible to divine once the opportunity to know it has passed. We have some writings from our founding fathers which can help us to understand but there will always be argument.

I believe that they intended to keep weapons in the hands of citizens as a means to fight tyranny. As we all know, the first battle of the Revolution was when the Brits tried to take a strategic colonial stockpile of weapons. The lesson being the only freedoms a person has is one they have the ability to fight for.

This ideology is what makes us as you say a gun-owning culture.

There are only two ways of dealing with people, persuasion or force. The first amendment protects persuasion and the second amendment protects force.
As a matter of Constitutional writing, and the issue of gun ownership aside for a second, the founding fathers were very specific when they wanted to be and other times they were intentionally vague. They knew what they were doing, which is really amazing looking back 300+ years. The second Amendment is one that was written specifically, and addresses a group right, which is precisely why it was conditioned.
The founding fathers wrote individual rights in absolute terms to keep challengers of their writing from embarking on the "what if's" or "they meant this". They made this distinction with full understanding of the British tyranny, yet they still did not author the 2nd Amendment as an absolute and unconditioned individual right. If the right to bear arms was meant to be an indvidual right they would not have bothered to mention militias in the first place, since it could be inferred that an armed militia was a utility of an individual (i.e. uncontioned) right to bear arms. Instead we are arguing the reverse, that the group right to have an armed militia can be interpreted as and individual right. But again that's not at all they way they wrote it. And they semed fully aware of the possibiliity of re-interpretation, like we are doing now, since they made it a point to be absolute and unconditional with regard to invidual rights. The pivotal queston still remains, why didn't they do this with regard to gun ownership as well?

Aside, I don't have a problem with some guy owning as many guns as he wishes. Statiscally, most aren't nuts and planning on walking into a kindergarten or movie theater to waste everyone in the whole room. But neither do I believe they are correct in stating that they, as individuals, have a Constitutional protection, if we take the founding fathers' written words at face value. WHich is kind of the whole point of the Constitution writing exercise.
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Last edited by Perfectlap; 03-09-2014 at 10:16 AM.
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