Attention DAD!
This post is for you. Mark over at WitNit has this post that you need to read.Actually, he points out this post by Ian Hamet at Banana Oil! I must say, I'm going to use that analogy.
A well regulated Intelligentsia, being necessary to the security of a free
State, the right of the people to keep and read Books, shall not be
infringed.
The Second Amendment holds special meaning to me. It would you too if you have ever been a victim or near victim of a violent crime.
Nevertheless, I have always taken offense at the way some interpret this part of The Constitution. If you have actually read The Constitution, in its entirety, you know that the framers speak a great number of times about three distinct groups. Those are: the state, the specific branches of the government that it enumerates and the Government in general, and the people.
If you read carefully, you will note that the founding fathers never said "the people" when they meant "the state" or "the government." So to me, one need only read between the punctuation, the commas setting off the clause, to find the right reserved for "the people." "The right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
The fact of the matter is that the framers wanted to avoid an excessively large and all-powerful government. That is why our government has three branches that check and balance against each other. But the ultimate check on them all is the people. As in, "We the People of the United States," the people who formed the government were not ceding rights to the government, but rather identifying the limited power of each branch. Remember your history! The Constitution was only ratified because of the explicit promise of the Bill of Rights. The States have rights, but these do not supercede the rights of the people.
It is essential to the human condition that we be allowed to protect our own life and liberty. A gun was an essential tool in the time of our founding fathers, much in the same way that computers are common now. Every 8-year-old had a rifle and was taught to use it well. To suggest that the framers were ceding the right to defy their government by going to war is ludicrous. Would they really deny themselves, and us, the right to do what they had just succeeded in doing? Not fucking likely. These are the shopkeepers and farmers who lifted their pitchforks and muskets and gave the British hell.
The Constitution is not a suggestion. It is not a loose guideline. It is the way it is. If you choose not to vote, that is your problem. But, it the government suddenly decided to take away your right to vote (without reason) would you stand for that? What do you care, right? You don't vote anyway. Ah, but if they take away the right, they deny you the power of creating your own government. And if you don't have your gun, then you can't take back your rights either.
Don't even think about taking my guns. I'm mean. And pregnant. I'll remove your family jewels with a strawberry huller if you push me. (Insert laugh).
Have a lovely day.
You know, the more time that passes, I realize I am the living embodiment of Bree Van De Kamp from Desperate Housewives.
