As I have stated before, I’m a Constitutionalist, not a Democrat or Republican so I offer this to the forum.
Our Founders guaranteed a number of individual rights for all citizens, because they had just fought a long, bloody war to win independence from an oppressive government. They wanted to do everything they could to protect citizens’ rights against the next oppressive government. So, they formulated the Bill of Rights to ensure citizens had the wherewithal to resist or fight back against future oppressive governments.
All 10 amendments are aimed to prevent oppressions they had suffered under British rule, though they were not unique to British rule but are common to all tyrannical, oppressive governments. The Founders protected the right of speech and assembly, the right of a free press, and the right of religious freedom for all citizens.
In the Second Amendment the Founders protected rights of individual citizens to own guns so they could hunt or to enjoy shooting sports? No. The Founders protected the rights of individual citizens to own guns and any other means of self-defense to prevent an oppressive government from gaining control over America. Remember, the British government had tried to disarm Americans, and the Founders wrote the Second Amendment to protect Americans from any government that would try to disarm them. They believed that the citizens should have similar weapons to that of the government. At the time, the government only had muskets. The Founding fathers also knew that weapon evolve over time as they had seen throughout history.
The Second Amendment states: "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."
Freedom was most important to our founders. Today, some believe this amendment limits the bearing of arms to a “well regulated militia.” No. That’s why the Founders spelled out the details so that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
Our Founders were profoundly influenced not only by their own experience fighting oppressive government, but also from wise men before them like William Blackstone, a contemporary jurist who said, “[Self-defense is] justly called the primary law of nature, so it is not, neither can it be in fact, taken away by the laws of society.”
In a letter to James Madison, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.” In another letter later that year to Madison, Jefferson wrote, “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms.”
In “Commonplace Book,” Jefferson quoted 18th-century criminologist Cesare Beccaria, writing, “The laws that forbid the carrying of arms … disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…. Such laws … serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides….”
Our Founders guaranteed a number of individual rights for all citizens, because they had just fought a long, bloody war to win independence from an oppressive government. They wanted to do everything they could to protect citizens’ rights against the next oppressive government. So, they formulated the Bill of Rights to ensure citizens had the wherewithal to resist or fight back against future oppressive governments.
All 10 amendments are aimed to prevent oppressions they had suffered under British rule, though they were not unique to British rule but are common to all tyrannical, oppressive governments. The Founders protected the right of speech and assembly, the right of a free press, and the right of religious freedom for all citizens.
In the Second Amendment the Founders protected rights of individual citizens to own guns so they could hunt or to enjoy shooting sports? No. The Founders protected the rights of individual citizens to own guns and any other means of self-defense to prevent an oppressive government from gaining control over America. Remember, the British government had tried to disarm Americans, and the Founders wrote the Second Amendment to protect Americans from any government that would try to disarm them. They believed that the citizens should have similar weapons to that of the government. At the time, the government only had muskets. The Founding fathers also knew that weapon evolve over time as they had seen throughout history.
The Second Amendment states: "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."
Freedom was most important to our founders. Today, some believe this amendment limits the bearing of arms to a “well regulated militia.” No. That’s why the Founders spelled out the details so that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
Our Founders were profoundly influenced not only by their own experience fighting oppressive government, but also from wise men before them like William Blackstone, a contemporary jurist who said, “[Self-defense is] justly called the primary law of nature, so it is not, neither can it be in fact, taken away by the laws of society.”
In a letter to James Madison, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.” In another letter later that year to Madison, Jefferson wrote, “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms.”
In “Commonplace Book,” Jefferson quoted 18th-century criminologist Cesare Beccaria, writing, “The laws that forbid the carrying of arms … disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…. Such laws … serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides….”
