As some of you know I live in Florida but for the next couple of weeks I am visiting friends and family in Wisconsin. This week I am in beautiful Door County, a place that some people have described as the Cape Cod of the Midwest. The other day I was driving past a restaurant, Al Johnson’s,  in Sister Bay and I saw something that I had never seen before in Door County. I saw a man carrying a gun standing outside.  Some of you may know that particular restaurant is one of the “go to” restaurants for families and kids in Door County. The building has a grass roof and there are goats on the roof eating the grass.  Besides their great food, that alone creates a memory that will last a child a lifetime. A man carrying a gun I would think would kind of change that memory. I have been coming to Door Country for almost 40 years and that was a first. I don’t know about you but I do not feel safer when I see someone carrying a gun. There are just too many unstable people running around with guns.

This last 4^th of July has not been a very joyous one for much of the nation. I swear the inmates are running the asylum. In Highland Park, Illinois during the parade celebrating the 4^th a gunman with an assault rifle was perched on the rooftop like a sniper and opened fire. 7 people died and 30 were wounded. It looks like it is a 22 year old that had legally purchased the gun was the shooter. Because he had women’s clothes to disguise him during his escape it looked like it was something that he had planned in advance. Chicago, New York City, Gary Indiana, Kansas City, Richmond Virginia, Kenosha, Wisconsin, Haltom City Texas, Minneapolis Minnesota , Philadelphia Pennsylvania, and Indianapolis Indiana all had 4^th of July shoots and there are probably more that are not being reported in the national news. This is not a community problem. This is not a State problem. This is a National problem. Two of the victims in Indianapolis were children 8 and 10 playing in a bounce house. Can you imagine the scars that those two children will carry with them for the rest of their lives. Do you believe that the Highland Park will ever be able to celebrate the 4^th again and not be afraid that there will be another gunman on the rooftop?

I have stated many times that the 2^nd Amendment is the most twisted sentence in the Constitution. I get a lot of flak from some of our gun loving Americans that think of themselves as Patriots or some that I think they are still fighting the Civil War. I will stand by my words. Yes, the amendment was put there for the defense of the State. It is the whys that are always debatable. I have written before about the 2^nd Amendment ties to slavery but for most people that is just ignored. I also feel that is one of the motivating factors for the campaign against Racial Education and also the campaign against Critical Race Theory. In 1791 America was a divided nation and that division was slavery.  It is estimated that in 1790 there were more slaves in South Carolina than free citizens. Whether you want to believe it or not the only way you could control that many slaves is by force and fear. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that one major reason for a militia was for a way to control the slaves. I am sure that it is no coincidence that the Bill of Rights was adopted the same year of the Haitian Slave Rebellion. There was also a fear that the Federal Government would not come to the assistance of the Southern States if there was a slave revolt. Was their fear a fear of a Tyrannical Government that would free their slaves? Is that what they meant by having to defend themselves from a Tyrannical Government?  Isn’t that fear that led us to the Civil War?

When I write one of these there is always someone that will tell me that I can be thankful that there will be someone with a gun to stop me from being loaded onto a train. What my fear is that the ones with the guns will be doing the loading of the trains. Many of the militant guns groups are also White Supremists. White Supremists marched in Charlotte Virginia at the Unite the Right Rally crying that they will not replace us. Doesn’t that sound like a group that would be actually loading the trains? It was a group of White Supremists that were stopped in Idaho from attacking a Gay Pride event. Yes, these groups sound exactly like a group that would load people onto a train.

The need for the 2^nd Amendment many have claimed its purpose was so the people could revolt against a Tyrannical Government. That excuse may have met the mustard in 1789 but is sure doesn’t today. I have written this before but I will write it again. Who is the first line of defense that protects the government? The police of course, you know those men in blue that all those lawn signs that say we should support. If it is too much to for the police to handle next up is the National Guard. These guys are real soldiers that are trained in actual combat. If it gets so hard that the National Guard the next up is the Army, god help us if it gets that far. If you notice that nowhere is there a part where the Governor calls up the local Militia. The Supreme Court has already ruled that the only legal Militias are State sanctioned Militias so all those guys running around playing army claiming to be Militia Men are nothing more than criminals. Real Militias have gone the way of the Dodo Bird so why hasn’t the 2^nd Amendment.

In the 1980s the NRA and a Group of Conservative Politicians decided that the 2^nd Amendment was really written for Personal Protection. Now if you look at the 2^nd Amendment you will not see the words personal or protection it was written for the security of a free State. Why did they change the 2^nd amendment all of a sudden? Beats the hell out of me. Greed maybe. Political Power maybe. What it has created is chaos and death. I have always owned a gun and have never feared that the Government is going to take them away. I have always felt that I had the right to protect my home and family from harm. The 2^nd Amendment did not give us this. These are things that I feel that most of us have felt we had even before the creation of our Government. What this has created has been death and insecurity. There is no security if you go to a parade and some guy opens fire from a rooftop. There is no security if our children are being murdered in their schools. Protecting guns that are used in these actions is not for the defense of a free state. If you are looking for who is to blame just look at the people that you are voting for. People that are putting weapons of war on our streets and claiming it is the vision of our Forefathers.

 

 

Fourth of July weekend marred by violent shootings across U.S. (nbcnews.com)

gun control | Laws, Debate, Pros, Cons, & Facts | Britannica

The Forgotten Truth Of How Slavery Shaped The 2nd Amendment - Rantt Media

Slave, Free Black, and White Population, 1780-1830 (umbc.edu)