Quote:
Originally Posted by Sarah_W
Jim, I'm not saying you aren't nice nor polite. As you noted, the thread is about the 2nd Amendment and the definition of "arms" as the Founding Fathers meant "arms". It is not about mass shootings, school shootings etc. That is the point. Why not start a new thread on your topic. I will happily contribute.
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Personally, I have never started a thread and I never even read about how to do it - because normally I only wake up early at 5 AM if my house is on fire, to go to the bathroom, to have a heart attack, or to watch the beginning of WW3. There should have been multiple threads already this year because of the serious nature of the problem, but there haven't been any that I remember (someone may correct me if I missed one). Mass murders are around 360 year to date, which is a record. And last year was also a record. They are increasing and the public all across the US want a SOLUTION. A councilman in Uvalde was on TV saying that, at minimum, the Governor or at the Federal level should raise the age for purchase of AR-15 style weapons to 21. The Texas governor CLAIMED? that the sole answer was to somehow nebulously improve mental health (a concept ripped out of the pages of NRA dogma). Which basically translates to ........"do nothing and don't rock the boat".
....... In general, it is hard to know how narrow or wide the answers to a thread should go. It seemed to me that most posters interpreted the thread to be a discussion of the 2nd Amendment and its implications on MODERN America and not so much about how Jefferson or Franklin thought about it. And as far as I have heard, the 2nd Amendment is worded very loosely, which gives rise to various interpretations. I am not a Colonial History scholar. Last time I had to concentrate on it was in 6th grade for an upcoming History test. Even the last time that I watched the History Channel was about 3 years ago - there was a good dramatic series about French and English settlers near Quebec along the St, Lawrence River. But, I can see that it means MUCH more to various posters here in TV Land - so I applaud that !
....The only thing that I could add to a discussion of Colonial times and the Revolutionary war - involves the guns used. The British carried SMOOTHBORE black powder flintlocks designed for war and fast reloading (more like less slow). That worked well in the OLD world and also their infantry tactics. The American revolutionaries fought a different style. They carried basically hunting rifles with RIFLED barrels which were more accurate than the smoothbore barrels of the British.. And put more deer and turkey meat on the table. Because of this basic difference in rifles, the Colonial revolutionaries developed a "shoot and scoot" technique where they used trees as cover and took advantage of their somewhat-more accurate at longer ranges-rifle......they were somewhat like snipers. That's all I know about Colonial History.