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2nd Amendment rambling.

In another comment I mentioned machine gun and my brain did one of my infamous double jumps into the Second Amendment. Then I had to think of a title. A lot of you will know it thought about all or most of this, but some will not and it may be useful. 2nd Amendment: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Now one objection refuted at a time. “Well regulated” at the time, and still in some situations, means “property of something being in proper working order”,  not meaning laws governing it. Militia. George Mason said, “I ask, sir, what is the Militia? It is the whole people except for certain public officials.” When defined then it was not a standing army or anything governmentally controlled. Note the amendment says it’s a right of the people, not a right of a ” well regulated Militia”. “Keep” = own. “Bear” = carry around. Arms. Here I hear a lot about muskets only. Uh, no. Rifles existed. In the army, the way they fought in masses groups, rate of fire was king. Muskets could fire about 3 times per minute. Rifles 2 times a minute, if loaded in advance. In the masses group, if you missed who you were aiming at, you could hit someone else. Also, it said “arms”, not guns. Swords could be arms. You could be armed with a pointy rock or a sharp stick. (As mentioned in Bill ‘s excellent “Number one with a bullet.” ). I found individuals in Revolutionary times that owned the weapon of mass destruction of the time: the cannon. Yes, some individuals owned cannons. Now back to what started the whole post. The machine gun. What I mean by machine gun is a gun that when you pull the trigger and hold it more than one round is shot. Why do we need a special license for that? What about the “shall not be infringed”?  Too dangerous? And a cannon wasnt? I think the founders would be aghast that the standing army can have weapons that we, the people, cannot freely have. I wonder what would happen if someone fought it on that basis? I f overturned, maybe I could pick up a gently used F15 eagle somewhat cheaply if I won the lottery. Maybe I could pay Bill to fly it. Heck, maybe he ‘d pay me for the privilage. 😜

5 replies on “2nd Amendment rambling.”

This was a very fun ramble. Thanks.
I fully agree with you that many laws that have been passed, which violate the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment by infringing upon our individual right to keep and bear arms — including fully automatic “weapons of war” to use a ridiculous phrase of the tyrannical elitists.

“Heck, maybe he ‘d pay me for the privilage.”
I think that’s extremely likely. Granted, you might have to break his arms to get him back out of it…

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