America, your Second Amendment is a travesty
No doubt the Founding Fathers meant well when devising and debating the the need for the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Unfortunately, it has become an arcane legislative instrument — so many Americans stand behind it as though it were a kryptonite force field to shield their freedom and liberties. It has also become irrelevant. Still, so many fail to understand the damage that this “protection” has created in modern society.
We will look back into American history for a moment. The Congress passed the Second Amendment, “Right to Bear Arms”, on September 25, 1789. It took another two years to ratify this legislation and this occurred on December 15, 1791.
For perspective, the United States at that time consisted of 13 States, which were previously colonies under British rule, and had a population 3,929,214 inhabitants. The nation undertook it’s inaugural census in 1790, the same year that George Washington became the first president of the union.
In that era, the U.S. really extended no farther west than the Mississippi River, which flowed north to south 2,340 miles from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. The territory west of the Mississippi was essentially no man’s land at that time and was unexplored and unsettled by Americans.
Militias, groups of able-bodied men organized locally and with scant military training were often the only force available to thwart attacks by hostile native populations or trespassers. There was no regular army or police during that period in the heartland and militias also formed the main fighting body during the Revolutionary War (1775–1783) against British rule. Eventually, militias gave way to the National Guard, formed in most of the states as organized volunteer forces.
Federalist and Anti-Federalist forces argued vehemently over the authority that the federal government could impose on the citizenry with respect to their right to resist the possibility of rancid government oppression and control but agreed that the federal government could not and should not disarm the people.
The Second Amendment, Right to Bear Arms, reads 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.” Single shot muskets and flintlock pistols were the arms used by the citizens in those days.
In our present time, an arsenal of weaponry simply unimaginable to the founders are available in retail stores with virtually no viable legal protections for the population at large from a person or persons intending harm. Surely, in the dawn of the American empire, firearms were seen as a way to protect home and hearth and to repel aggression and threat to family and loved ones.
In the United States today, there are approximately 300 million guns, half of the gun inventory in the world. The U.S. has but 4% of the world’s population. More than 100 Americans die by gunshot every day. Many more are injured.
https://www.bradyunited.org/key-statistics
In the aftermath of the carnage in Buffalo and Uvalde, a paradigm shift of the magnitude never before seen and felt in the American psyche must unfold. It starts with restrictions on gun procurement, eligibility for ownership and related measures.
Today, an unstable 18 year old male with murder and mayhem on his mind can simply purchase a military grade weapon and then unleash unearthly carnage — how can this be permitted?
To me, it seems too many Americans are beholden to a distorted mysticism that the modern world remains a frontier and that hyper-vigilance is needed. It appears, too, that the spectre of white supremacy across the land remains pervasive.
I am a Canadian, your next door neighbour, and looking at this strictly American phenomenon of massive gun death I am appalled at the lack of action by your lawmakers to correct and treat this terrible societal disease.
The Second Amendment has become a disgrace and a perversion.