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Originally Posted by Sarah_W
No other citizen in the world enjoys the level of freedom and the Liberty of Americans. Millions cross our borders seeking such freedom. The 2nd Amendment is not emotional, no more than Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. The 2nd Amendment ensures you can protect the rest of your Rights.
One must also consider a comparison of authoritarianism and abuse of citizens’ individual rights.
Australia, prior to the “assault” weapons ban was a model of democracy in which individual rights and freedom of the people were respected and protected. During COVID we saw the use of force against and the beatings of peaceful protesters (as well as people who dared go to the grocery for food or medicines), extreme lockdowns, intrusion into personal communications, forced use of a personal movement tracking app, construction and use of internment camps in which COVID positive people were forced by the military to live.
Too many U.S. citizens don’t know, on April 18, 1775, British troops left Boston headed for the towns of Lexington and Concord. The next day, 15 months before the writing of the Declaration of Independence, was the first battle of the American Revolution. The British were not looking for rebels or the leaders who were advocating resistance to the Crown. They were under specific orders to seize and destroy arms and munitions believed to be hidden in the two towns.
This first battle of the Revolution was fought over gun control. The British government wanted to seize the lawfully owned firearms of the colonists. If British troops could disarm the militia, there would be less of a threat to their control. This is one of the main reasons the Second Amendment was written into such a prominent place in our Bill of Rights.
Equally unknown to our citizens today is that the Constitution was conditional on the Bill of Rights. In other words, the States did not want to ratify the Constitution unless certain Rights were enshrined. The Framers could have inserted those Rights into the Constitution but chose not to for fear that in the future it might be construed that those were the only Rights that Americans – as in a parchment barrier.
Judging from what we see today, I’m certain their fear would have been realized. So, they chose the amendment process and from the original list of amendments, ten were ratified to become our Bill of Rights. For some of the Framers that was not good enough. If James Madison is the father of the Constitution, George Mason is the father of the Bill of Rights, patterned and borrowed form the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Still, George Mason, one of the most prolific debaters during the Constitution Convention, Edmund Randolf, and Elbridge Gerry refused to sign the newly written Constitution as they felt it was a flawed document. Thomas Jefferson and others would agree.
I never want the US to end up like Australia. If that happens, Liberty is dead.
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Thank you for the great discussion and information. There will always be arguments regarding what the authors of the Constitution and BOR "meant" when they wrote it. I do not understand why anyone would wish to tear down our country, and I do not understand how anyone would compare Australia to the U.S. as a model for Freedom. The U.S. has always been the sole model for Liberty and Freedom and those that keep looking over the fence at what they believe is greener grass should climb over that fence with all their belongings and live permanently in that "better" place. I dare say that once they climb over that fence, they will find that they will be on artificial turf and they will enjoy being grain fed by a farmer that is fattening them up for the butcher shop.
It does not matter what the creators of the original documents meant by "arms" because anyone with a lick of sense KNOWS exactly what they meant, but some just don't like it and won't like anything that might hinder their "social equality" even if it means they become cattle waiting to be slaughtered.
In my opinion, "shall not be infringed" means just that. I take it as meaning "Don't prevent me from defending my family and property."
Infringed: To transgress or exceed the limits of; violate.To defeat; invalidate.To encroach on someone or something; engage in trespassing.