I was bored today…..so I thought I would toss a grenade and see where the damage would be…..
With all the shootings lately I expected to see some sort of revival of the 2nd Amendment debate…..so far I have been disappointed….I guess it is up to me to get the engines firing….
Many years ago while the nation was in the middle of one of our famous gun rights debates I wrote a post that was the highlights of a longer article I wrote explain why I felt the 2nd was put into the BoR.
As history buff I am always interested in the opinions on defining moments in our history….
I re-post my original for readers to get a feel of my thinking…..
I recently came across another article that looked deeper into the 2nd than the mindless twaddle that people try to use in the debate these days….
One mass shooting after another, one accidental child death after another tears through this country on an almost daily basis. Once again, lawmakers hide behind “thoughts and prayers,” while clinging to an amendment that has been twisted beyond recognition. But to understand why the Second Amendment exists at all, we must strip away the myths and confront a brutal truth: it was not written to safeguard freedom, but to preserve slavery.
The militias it enshrined were never about defending homes from tyrants abroad but about keeping human beings in chains at home. Until America reckons with this history, we will remain shackled to its bloody legacy.
So, let’s clear a few things up.
The real reason the Second Amendment was ratified, and why it says “state” instead of “country” (the framers knew the difference—see the 10th Amendment), was to preserve the slave-patrol militias in the Southern states, an action necessary to get Virginia’s vote to ratify the Constitution.
It had nothing to do with making sure mass murderers could shoot up public venues and schools. Founders, including Patrick Henry, George Mason, and James Madison, were totally clear on that, and we all should be too.
In the beginning, there were the militias. In the South, they were called “slave patrols” and were regulated by the states.
In Georgia, for example, a generation before the American Revolution, laws were passed in 1755 and 1757 that required all plantation owners or their male white employees to be members of the Georgia Militia, and for those armed militia members to make monthly inspections of the quarters of all slaves in the state. The law defined which counties had which armed militias and required armed militia members to keep a keen eye out for slaves who may be planning uprisings.
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-second-amendment-was-created-to-put-down-slave-revolts/
Please let your thoughts be known.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
You already know my strong feelings about the second amendment. Here’s a reminder from years ago. You commented on it in 2017. Best wishes, Pete.
https://beetleypete.com/2012/08/28/the-right-to-bear-arms/
Baffles me how so many seem to think the US Constitution is sacrosanct.
I wonder if the majority actually understand the term “Amendment”?
🤦
Nothing to add here because I completely agree with you.
There is a huge amount of controversy regarding gun ownership back in the 1700s. If you start digging into the historical records things get murky pretty quickly. In the last, oh, 20 or so years, a lot of alleged “scholars” have come forward claiming that gun ownership was almost universal among adult males, and could be as high as 80% or more. Many if not most of these so called scholars or researchers, however, if you look into their backgrounds, are directly or indirectly linked to the gun lobby or to far right political organizations and should be considered highly biased.
The fact of the matter is that most colonials were basically famers or tradesmen or laborers, not hunters. The notion that the colonists survived by shooting deer, had o fend off attacks by Indians, etc. is largely a fantasy conjured up by dime novels of the 19th century mistaken for history. The colonists obtained their meat the same way their ancestors back in the “old country” did, they raised pigs, chickens and cattle.
They were also mostly very poor, and firearms were still mostly hand made by skilled craftsmen at the time and were incredibly expensive. A gun at the time could cost more than what most people made in an entire year. They were simply unaffordable for most people. The most reliable information I’ve come across indicates that prior to the Revolutionary War, only about 14 or 15% of households had a firearm.
Here’s a quote from the Revolutionary War Journal:
“Professor Bellesiles’ research is one of others that seriously calls into question the National Rifle Association’s argument that guns are part of our heritage and that the founding fathers wanted a musket in every home. Only thirteen percent of colonial Americans owned a gun. Most Americans were farmers; they had no need for firearms as they did not hunt, but got their meat from domestic animals. Firearms did not prove a deterrent on frontier farms when attacked by Native Americans therefore only about ten percent of settlers had a gun. Colonial homicide was extremely low and when it occurred, it did so with a bladed weapon. All firearms were closely regulated and carefully counted before and after the American Revolution. They were collected prior to the war and after the war and most were stockpiled for military use only. When the research is closely examined, it brings into question our Founder’s original intent when crafting the Second Amendment as a right created for all Americans to personally have access to as many arms as they desire without the need for regulation; especially when before and after the Amendment became law, guns were regulated. When one takes historical records into consideration, it lays bare many of the arguments that America has always had a gun culture. It didn’t. Not until the late 1800’s, when the ‘gun culture’ was fabricated and a great deal of money was made by gun clubs and weapons manufactures…”