[Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit]

Nice story.

For me the main issue of the second amendment which is almost never brought up is the requirement of an armed citizenry to form militias that could potentially be the last line of defense against a tyrannous government.

Honestly I find those gentlemen who talk about their guns as if they were extensions of their manhood or love to talk about "from my cold dead hands" at best silly, and at worst counterproductive oafs.

The 2nd amendment is 2nd because it is the 2nd most important right to ensure an enduring democracy, even under the worst imaginable circumstances i.e. an invading army or the US government itself using the military to impose the will of tyrannous regime it may itself have become.

The 2nd amendment is not about hunting and it is not about protecting oneself from criminals. It is about national defense and the eternal vigilance required to preserve an inherently unstable balance required for representative democracy to endure.

[Jonah Hex]

One comment: The Bill of Rights is not a prioritization list i.e. one right is more important than another. The Second Amendment is equal in importance to the First Amendment is equal in importance to the Fifth Amendment, etc.

In other words, the Bill of Rights should not be confused with Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics...

I'll defer to our resident Constitutional scholar on that point. :-)

[Gumption]

I agree with everything you said. And you said it very well I might add. I did/do explain all of that to my children at every opportunity. But of all the short ways the teacher could have described the 2nd Amendment "the right to own guns" is as right as I could have expected.

[Dead Corpse]

Republic. Not a democracy. Other than that, good post.

[Richard-SIA]

"The 2nd amendment is 2nd because it is the 2nd most important right to ensure an enduring democracy"

Sorry, it has been shown many times that the numerical order of the first ten amendments to the U.S. constitution is entirely random.

The First is not "More" important than the Second, Fourth, Eighth, or Tenth.
It is NOT a list of descending priorities.

All are equally important, all were required for the Constitution of which they are an integral part to be ratified.

In order to fully regain our republic we must support an UNABRIDGED constitution and B.O.R.

[PhilipFreneau]

>>>The 2nd amendment is 2nd because it is the 2nd most important right to ensure an enduring democracy...<<<

No. The first 10 amendments were all considered equally important, and were not placed in any particular order. In fact, our current "First Amendment" was originally submitted as the "Third Amendment". The first two amendments failed ratification by the states, so the Third became the First by default.

This is not to say that some of our Founders placed extra value on one amendment or another. Some thought the RKBA the most important; some thought the Freedom of the Press.