Guns, guns, guns. Every day, in just about every newspaper in America we can read about a shooting nearby. In 2020 there were over 19,000 homicides and over 24,000 suicides by guns. I have heard many times “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people”. Well, I would like to add that in most if not all cases it is people with guns that kill people and to say otherwise is just ignoring the facts. A gun does not pull its own trigger; a person has to pull that trigger.
As of 2020, the top ten gun ownership states per capita five were also in the top ten gun deaths per capita. I don’t know about you but I think that might say that more guns lead to more gun deaths. Funny but you hear about Chicago and Detroit being so violent but neither Illinois nor Michigan are in the top ten in either category. Don’t get me wrong, I think all our inner cities are violent places but maybe because they are in major news centers we hear about the gun violence more. But don’t kid yourself, gun violence is everywhere.
I always hear it is our Constitutional right to bear arms given to us by our 2nd Amendment. “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.” That one sentence has always been a very controversial sentence. All you ever hear people say, “In the Constitution, I have the right to bear arms” yet, that the one sentence says a lot more. The words well-regulated are in there. What does that mean? People running around with their AR-15’s, strapped on to go to the grocery store does not look like anything that is part of a well-regulated anything. It says, “being necessary for a Free State”. What does that mean? Without that 45 strapped to my side our State cannot be a free state? I am a gun owner and I have always thought that I had the right to protect my home and family. I never felt that it was the 2nd Amendment that gave me that right.
There have been always a racial side of the second amendment. Why was the second amendment put there in the first place when the Constitution established a Federal Army even during peacetime? During the Revolutionary War Militias prove not to be very effective. Why were the States so certain that they needed a well regulated Militia? How about 1. Attacks from Native Americans and 2. Slave uprisings. James Madison Patrick Henry and George Mason were very responsible for the 2nd Amendment because they did not trust that the Federal Government would react properly in case of a slave revolt. Because of a slave uprising known as the Haitian Revolution in 1791 many feared that the same would happen here. Many felt that a militia, controlled by the State, was very important for the maintaining of slavery in the South. In much of the South during slavery they had a type of local militia called slave patrols which were meant to enforce the laws of slavery. These early local Militia, some feel, are the precursors to our current police force. That was the original purpose for the 2nd Amendment as I see it.
In the ruling by the Supreme Court in 1874, the case United States vs. Cruikshank, the Supreme Court ruled that “The right to bear arms is not granted by the Constitution; neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument of its existence. The Second Amendment means no more than it shall not be infringed by Congress, and has no other effect than to restrict the powers of the National Government.” You would think that this was a victory for gun control on the State level but at the time it opened the door for open season on the Blacks in our Southern States. We also had a few years later in 1886 Presser vs. the State of Illinois. Illinois had passed a law against locally formed militias not sanctioned by the State. That law was upheld by the Supreme Court so now a militia had to follow the laws of the State. The non-sanctioned militias were illegal. The Supreme Court In The District of Columbia vs. Heller in 2008 stated that personal protection is part of the 2nd Amendment. It opened the door for all this open carry and gun intimidation that we have today. In 230 years that was never the purpose of the 2nd Amendment but it is now. So in my opinion it threw out 230 yrs of rulings for political gain. I wonder how many children would be alive today if the courts had ruled as courts in the past did?
The Second Amendment, is in my opinion, the most twisted sentence in the entire Constitution. It was put there as a tool for the oppressor to help enslave and control Black people. The word self-protection is nowhere in the Amendment because the Amendment was not written for self-protection as we know it today. The playing of politics has distorted it for political power and money. It was written for White slave owners to protect their investment in human flesh. It has been turned now into something very dangerous for our whole nation.
Sources worth reading:
Gun Violence Statistics in the United States in Charts and Graphs | Reader's Digest (rd.com)
The Second Amendment - Definition, Text & Rights - HISTORY
Historian Carol Anderson Uncovers The Racist Roots Of The 2nd Amendment : NPR
United States v. Cruikshank | The First Amendment Encyclopedia (mtsu.edu)
District of
Columbia v. Heller - Wikipedia
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