A 2nd Amendment Thought Experiment

American Thinker ^ | February 8, 2018 | Peter Skurkiss

[Sopater]

Here's a simple thought experiment regarding the 2nd Amendment. What do you think the U.S. would be like if we didn't have it?

Without the 2nd Amendment, firearms would likely be highly restricted and controlled. Various state legislatures might not vote for that, but it would come about through a combination of federal action, judicial decisions, and bureaucratic decrees. Violent crime would probably be higher as an unarmed citizenry is easy prey for criminals. In all likelihood, America would look like other Anglo countries such as Australia and Great Britain with respect to gun ownership.

That's the easy part of the answer. But there's more to it than that. Without the 2nd Amendment, might not the social and cultural landscape of America be different from what it is today?

[Sopater]

When you think of this government class, which is predominately male, a picture of a feminized metrosexual springs to mind, especially the higher up you go in the hierarchy.

This point is this. In the back of their minds, even if it is buried at a subconscious level, these people fear an armed citizenry. An armed citizenry puts a check on how far and how fast the government class dares to push its progressive agenda by unconstitutional means.

Well, whether we have the 2nd Amendment or not, the right to keep and bear arms is a natural right that predates the 2A by millennia.

I expect that it would be much easier to take away the 2nd amendment than it would be to actually take away our means of defense.

[areukiddingme1]

“What do you think the U.S. would be like if we didn’t have it [the 2nd Amendment]?”

But I don’t want to drive a prius, stand in line for food, live in a crowded New York/Los Angeles city $hithole, and I don’t want to have gay sex...Well, we are the government and we will tell you what you will drive, where you will live and exactly the kind of sex you will have...And YOU WILL LIKE IT!!!!

Now shut up pissant and fix that windmill!!!

[Edward.Fish]

Without the 2nd Amendment, firearms would likely be highly restricted and controlled.

… they are.

Unequivocally and absolutely, they are — all you need to look at are the gun laws.

[rjsimmon]

What do you think the U.S. would be like if we didn't have it?

We would not be the US. Were the 2nd Amendment to have never been codified in the BoR, the US would not have developed as she did. I speculate that our involvement around the world would have been radically different and we probably would not have been participants in WWI and WWII. We probably would have been invaded or subsumed by a more aggressive nation.

[gunnyg]

Ask the Real Crocodile Dundee!
never mind, he ain’t around no more!
Try ms. Google..............

[Yo-Yo]

The National Firearms Act of 1934 sought to effectively ban the private ownership of handguns, but that provision was dropped by congress from the final bill.

But that is why the NFA prohibited (via a then outlandish $200 tax) short barreled shotguns and rifles. I would presume that had the original plan gone through, handguns would also have required a $200 tax stamp.

Had the United States not had a Second Amendment, it is my feeling that congress in 1934 would have outright banned private ownership of handguns and short barreled shotguns/rifles, and not have gone the $200 tax route. Congress back then realized what the Second Amendment meant, so they used an outrageously high (for the time) tax to effectively ban SBSes, SBRs, Silencers, machine guns, and destructive devices.

Freed of the Second Amendment, they would have outright banned entire classes of firearms, and continued to ban ones they didn't like.

[Chewbarkah]

Well the “war on drugs” has turned out well. Without the Second Amendment, there could be trillions more spent on “law enforcement” and “criminal justice”, thousands more prisons built with guards to pay and unionize, millions of freedom-minded whites and others disenfranchised, about a hundred thousand a year more people shot by police, unemployment for a hundred thousands or so with guns and ammo manufacturing jobs, totalitarianism, concentration camps — all the stuff of leftist dreams. It’s a wonder the Democrats don’t try harder to kill it.

[spincaster]

“What do you think the U.S. would be like if we didn’t have it [the 2nd Amendment]?”
Well for one thing we wouldn’t be America. The 2nd Amendment is what shaped us into a free nation. We would never be free without it. We still have control and they can’t stand it!

[factoryrat]

Look at the UK, mexico, venezuela, or china today.

There’s your answer.

[rlmorel]

We would resemble various Euroweenie countries that ban guns.

There would be murder. Assault. Rape. They would be done with machetes, knives, baseball bats, fists, crowbars, you name it.

[mabarker1]

One of them shithole countries 🙄

[Sopater]

here would be murder. Assault. Rape. They would be done with machetes, knives, baseball bats, fists, crowbars, you name it.

... guns...

[rlmorel]

LOL, it was only after I wrote it that I realized I left out guns.

Yes. We won’t be able to defend ourselves, but the people who wish to prey upon us won’t have any such problems obtaining guns.

Gotta have the tools of the trade and all...

[Axenolith]

Probably have to speak Comanche to live in the southwest...