American liberals, as a rule, believe that our founders (fresh from a war they won with muzzle-loaded weapons) left us in a terrible mess with respect to modern guns.
A war they won with muzzle-loaded weapons, including cannon, against an adversary that fought back with muzzle-loaded weapons, including cannon ... and a lot more of them. And a lot more money to keep the supplies coming.
In 1776 muzzle-loaded weapons were "modern guns."
Damn! That was good.
“...I’m now fairly convinced that that is exactly what the founders gave us: an intentionally vague pronouncement designed to force the question into the future, to ensure it would be repeatedly reevaluated to keep up with changing weaponry and circumstances. “
I don’t think it was designed to “force the question into the future”. I think they wanted to guard against future tyranny (they had just come out of a war), but couldn’t bring themselves to write “A well regulated Militia being necessary to overthrow the government we just established if it becomes tyrannical, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
“But they didn’t tell us how much firepower citizens should be allowed to have. “
Yes they did. They said we could have militia weapons, like the ones the army has.
Ambiguous? Two nouns representing cohorts of the population, the Militia and the People. The rights of the People shall not be infringed. If you want to regulate the Militia, go ahead.
Well regulated militia
1. Well regulated - well trained in the small arms currently used by the military, or at least in modern firearms they own.
2. Militia - https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/246
10 U.S. Code § 246 - Militia: composition and classes
a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are—
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.
November 27, 2021
The thing is, “Militia” at the time meant, “Able-bodied [men] of fighting age”, capable of wielding a firearm. Or so I’ve been told.
This is the thing with language, as it changes over time, people don’t understand why the Amendments were worded in the way that they were, especially number Two. If you don’t know the definition of a word used almost two-hundred and fifty years ago, you can’t understand the point of the amendment.
So goes the ever-changing vocabulary thanks to wokeism, too.
Even when I agreed with some part of this article, the smugness of the author's brilliance, made me gag.
I try to read all of an article before I comment, but in this case, I could not.
There is no more term liberal. I see Democrat I hear Communist. The Communists would have you believe that the Bill of Rights were written for the government and that’s a lie. They were written for the people.