It didn't take much detective work to figure out. Every form of repressive govt has ALWAYS disarmed the citizenry!
Yes, it is the only Amendment to the United States Constitution that uses the phrase “Shall Not Be Infringed”.
That phrase is not even used to protect the Constitutional Right to Free Speech.
Yes. It is very difficult for our government to,get rid of rights its supposed to preserve for us in one easy swoop, like othe countries can do with just a change in leadership.
Of course many will try. And keep trying.
The states/fed model works pretty well compared to other setups.
We’re unique in one more way, that ties into this discussion and the NEED for the second amendment. Unlike most every other nation on earth, we do not share a common ethnicity. Even in places often torn by tribal or sectarian violence, there is more racial commonality than the US has.
People will tell you this doesn’t matter, but it does. Our system is designed to empower the individual above the group or “identity”... The second amendment lets that idea work.
The idea that a freeman has a right to be armed goes back further. The Anglo-Saxons, like many tribes in the Volkerwanderung,believed in a nation in arms, and that the right to carry weapons was a distinction enjoyed by a freeman.
The Anglo-Saxon Fyrd, or militia was based on this idea. Even in the time if Henry VIII, all freeman were required to own abd be proficient with, a longbow.
Mis-stated is more accurate. The concept (of our founding fathers) is correctly stated that the US is the exception in world history as a self-governing people with a constitution and governed under the rule of law. This is in contrast to the kings and tyrants of Europe and throughout history. Of course, the language and concept of American exceptionalism has changed over time, but that is due to ignorance about our country and institutions.
I always argued that in defending the second amendment one should base their argument on the right of self defense. The right of self defense is the most basic right of all life and yet is not explicitly mentioned anywhere in the Bill of Rights. The express reason for raising a militia is not exclusive and a militia could be assembled for the purpose of self defense.
The United States, as founded, was a federation of several sovereign states, each which retained its sovereignty via the 9th and 10th amendments. The 2nd amendment was "necessary to the security of a free state," meaning that the people were armed to protect against other states (or the federal government) from overrunning a state and taking it over.
Europe was plagued by centuries of conquests by neighbors, and the United States was determined to prevent that from happening here once the British Armies were removed as a controlling influence.
-PJ
“The case for American exceptionalism is often overstated.”
ESAD, you ignorant, disloyal POS.
No other country was *ever* founded on the principle that people have rights that preceded all government, that no government has the authority to violate.
It follows that we have a right to protect those rights, which means we have a right to arm ourselves and kill those who try to violate them.
Exceptional? We’re unique in history, and better.
Not misunderstood, but deliberately misconstrued by the left.
There is NO interpretation needed for The 2A.
It says what it means and means what it says- PERIOD!!!