As the debate over guns in general and assault rifles rages, I'd like to point out both the legal and practical mistakes being made. In the interest of all, the text of the Second Amendment is as follows:
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
The graveyard of progressives and liberals when reading this amendment is the focus on Militia and the habitual avoidance of the third phrase, in particular, the right of the people. The Second Amendment identifies two groups. A Militia, and the people.
The word Militia is used four times in the Constitution, three times in Article I, Section 8, and once in Article II, Section 2. The use of Militia in these sections speaks only to a military-like group, and military activities, it is not speaking about the people. Moreover, in these sections in the Constitution, Militia and the people are not interchanged as one and the same. On the other hand, the Second Amendment is delineating Militia, first by its use in the substantive text noted above, and secondly contrasting it with the people in the Bill of Rights. Attempting to merge them as one and the same is shakey at best. The failure to accept this plain understanding within the four corners of the Constitution leaves progressives and liberals flat footed at every turn. It leaves many expecting that AR-15's will be once again banned, outlawed, or otherwise legislated out of existence. This political fodder was again trotted out with the July 4th terror attack in Highland Park, Illinois.
If there is still a degree of doubt, there is yet another glaring observation missed by progressives and liberals. The entire body of the Constitution outlines the formation of a government. This new government has all the powers once enjoyed by a Monarch, and is now being formulated into a polity characterized by the consent of the governed. However noble this sounds, it wasn't without suspicion that with power there exists the abuse of power. Hence, no sooner than the ink dried on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights was roundly added to the Constitution. The Bill of Rights puts a nail in the coffin for the wayward belief that the Second Amendment is about a Militia, hunting, or limiting the kind of guns the people could bear.
The Bill of Rights articulates, without exception, fundamental rights held by all citizens. It is intellectual folly to assert, as does Thom Hartmann and others, that all nine of the amendments are the rights of the people, but the founders slipped in guns rights as some subterfuge or oversight only for state controlled Militia's and enslavers. Regardless of the argument that guns rights were a tool of the states and to enforce enslavement, it is worth noting; the entire Constitution established and maintained the institution of slavery. To suggest that enslavers valued firearms and therefore a moral argument against the broad sweep of the Bill of Rights from Mr. Hartmann and others, undermines and misleads America as to the scope and challenges before us. This institutional mindset pretends that the immoral thrust of conquest and enslavement in the Constitution can now be contorted to include common progressive and liberal moral arguments. This is political fiction of the worst kind.
It is without exception that we face possibly the greatest challenge in Americas history today. It is increasing clear that the Right is rooted in a world view tethered to, and in line with a world faithful to Christian Autocracy and social constructs from centuries past. It is equally clear, that the Left reaches for a world that is inclusive and rooted in scientific knowledge. These two worlds will not exist in harmony, these two world views will not form a more perfect union, and these two worlds are rapidly coming in conflict. The horses have left the barn, and they are not coming back. No amount of mass shootings (terror attacks) will bring the Right into the modern world view. Terror attacks aren't becoming normalized, they are normal and will continue as part of a warming civil conflict. Moreover, politicians will not be able to contain events. Simply put, the speed and veracity of Right Wing reaction to our worldview moves at light speed, compared to the doddering pace of government. Add to this the futility of the federal or state government seizing guns. The backlash would be welcome by the Right, igniting an already fervent faction all too ready to kill other Americans, believing its God's will and God's command.
This is the hand we've been dealt. For all the reasons above, its time for progressives and liberals to abandoned the rhetoric of taking guns, and embrace a mindful approach to supporting community defense and those willing to defend us from a Christian Dictatorship. That is what we are facing. All the moral shaming, all the horrors of terror attacks on us will not end. We need to accept our right to our self-defense as a community, and stiffen our readiness to fight for our vision of a better world.
