So I have been thinking a lot lately about what it would be like in the United States if other parts of the bill of rights, also known as the first ten amendments to the constitution of the United States of America were infringed in the same way that the second currently is.
So first off lets think about removing oh say the second amendment in it's current form and say that "For the safety of a free nation a militia will always be available to have weapons." This is exactly what a lot of people who live in large cities think the founding fathers meant to eventually happen anyway right. So now lets apply to some other amendments the same thing that is happening to the second and has been for quite a while now.
Now lets take and say that now that the president has decided he didn't like what people were saying and he wanted to limit free speech so he takes and says something to the effect of, hey anyone who writes an article in a newspaper must now be licensed and show a reason why they should be licensed. Now the government can control exactly who is allowed to write and if they don't like the answer given they don't have to give the person who has applied for a license the ability to have one. On top of that lets make it a requirement that every time you access a website and want to post a message of any type that a unique ID that is able to track back to you is attached to it. And before you are allowed to even learn to read and write you are required to submit to a background check. Seems like a big limit there right? These are exactly the type of things that are currently happening to the second amendment. To purchase a firearm that is sold by a store you must submit to a background check, on top of that most states require licensing to carry a firearm of which some require you to show good cause and some others even require a license and reporting of the ammunition purchased.
Lets take this even farther shall we? What if you no longer had the ability to practice ANY religion you chose? Say you had three approved choices, Catholicism, Christianity, and Buddhism. You have to pick one and while you can change your mind of which one you have to be a member. You can not be an atheist, there is no scientology, Islam is 100% anathema and when I say Christianity what I mean is ONE form of it, so say Baptist is fine but nothing else is acceptable. How would you feel if you didn't have the choice in your belief? Remember now that the second amendment only allows weapons for the militia you are pretty much out of luck. You have to take what you are allowed an nothing else with no recourse. Want to check out the church of the flying spaghetti monster too bad, you have to move to Jamaica or Canada.
What about the right to speak freely, would you want to have to be licensed to speak in a public forum? How about in a group setting?
Here is another thought, what if you were sitting at home and your neighbor across the road is angry that your light is shining in his windows so he calls the police and says that you are a drug dealer. An hour later the police knock on the door and just walk in with no probably cause and start taking things as they see fit. You are also put in jail on a ten million dollar bond and never get a court date. You end up with a hearing after five years where you plead your innocence and after a couple more years you get a trial where you are forced to take a lie detector test while you are also forced to testify and can not refuse to answer a single question.
These are actually some things that caused our founding fathers to come here in the first place. For one they DID NOT have the right to chose their religion and to speak out was often times forbidden. The United States started off as a place to escape persecution for thoughts and beliefs that did not adhere to "acceptable public opinion" which is basically saying if the king and/or queen didn't approve you were not allowed. Most of the first people to come came from Brittan but also other area's around Western Europe and our founding fathers knew the hardships that would come about from not having a way for the people to check the government power.
You may say that the way the people check the government power is through elections but there have been many times where corruption has been shown to happen. Power corrupts and a politician who has power will do a lot of things to keep it. The battle of Athens also sometimes known as the battle of McMinn County is one such example where not only the government was corrupt and used their power to protect themselves but also the people's use of firearms to check the power of the government and rid themselves of the corruption. You probably have not heard of it and may even thing it happened hundreds of years ago so here is the gist of the story. In 1946 the government in McMinn County Tennessee started doing things that were corrupt not limited to but including voter intimidation. The citizens had previously asked the United States Department of Justice to look into things but nothing was ever done about it. Finally when the normal detail of sheriffs deputies was increase from 15 to around 200 to "patrol" the voting precincts and the number of precincts was cut nearly in half. Add to that now the fact that people had to travel farther to vote taking busses only to have the busses stopped and people ticketed for no reason. The sheriff had done almost everything in his power to keep people from exercising their right to vote and even afterwards he was going to make sure he won by counting all the ballots in private. The people had taken enough.
Multiple World War II veterans went to the armory and retrieved rifles and a few pistols and went to the jail where the ballot boxes were being held and demanded their release. The deputies fired on the veterans and a battle ensued. A few people were hurt due to gunfire but ultimately they made their way into the jail and secured the ballot boxes. Only about five of them had been cleared of fraud and the current sheriff was on the losing end of things. Before long the police fled and the veterans took it upon themselves to protect the people.
That is only a part of what the right to bear arms gives us for other people seek power in other ways. Criminals with weapons have the power against you when they try to commit a crime and you have but two choices, give up and become a victim or fight back and figure out what the outcome is when it's all over. A weapon can be easy to have and are not limited to knives and firearms. A weapon can be a firearm or knife but also a hammer, a stick, a bottle, a car, hands and feet, even a wooden spoon.
For those people who say that the founding fathers had no intention beyond the weapons of the day and nothing to do with semiautomatic rifles let alone fully automatic weapons you would be severely wrong. A rifle was in production not long after our constitution was drafted that was able to hold 22 rounds and repeat very quickly in fact it could fire 22 shots in less than 30 seconds and was VERY accurate. It is called the Girandoni air rifle. Another video of it is available here that is very interesting to see. I can't find the story but it was reported that Benjamin Franklin was the one to supply the rifle to Lewis and Clark to take along. If that was the leading weapon of the day then I have to say that our founding fathers knew exactly what a rapid firing weapon was capable of and had no qualms whatsoever of allowing the public to use them. On top of that most if not all of our modern weapons came out as a civilian version before it was accepted by the military, this is not limited to but includes the AR15 whose military variant is often referred to as the M4 or M16. While military contracts for weapons are great for manufacturer's the real money is the civilian markets.
One last thing I would like to say to those people who talk about the tragic school shootings that have happened, first off we are one of the few countries who send our kids to a building and do little to nothing to protect our innocent children. Second I have a quote from an infamous person in history you have probably heard of on the subject and I feel his words will say it best.
“The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation.”
― Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
Now you can say my reasoning is flawed but my point is this, the police have no duty to protect you, criminals are afraid of citizens with firearms, and gun control doesn't work.
If you would like to see some other quotes that really put gun control in perspective I suggest you take a look here. And if you haven't done it lately how about you go take a look at the bill of rights tonight.
Stay safe out there America. The crazies are always out on the prowl, and the people who are trampling the constitution are some of them.
