General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: a guy broke into my sister's house [View all]brett_jv
(1,245 posts)The 2nd Amendment was put in place because the founders saw the idea of 'Standing Armies' (i.e. our sprawling military-industrial complex ... something I'd imagine you quite paradoxically believe is a swell thing) to be a huge threat to a democratic government. Instead, they wanted 'the army' that would defend the homeland against those who might do it harm to be 'the people'. Hence, the talk of 'well-regulated militias' in it's text.
Without any 'military' or at least a rather large and powerful police force that resembles a military, 'the government' would be entirely incapable of inflicting any serious form of tyranny.
Nowhere will you find mention from Jefferson et al that the 2nd Amendment was put in place to protect 'us' from the tyranny of the government they were in the process of creating. And there is VERY scant mention (by those operating at the federal level) that the 2nd Amendment had anything whatsoever to do with 'personal protection' of one's home or family.
Now that 'we've' decided to go ahead and HAVE a huge, standing army (contrary to the Founder's intent), the 2nd Amendment is basically pointless.
Either way, the argument that it was enacted to 'protect us' from the 'tyranny of government' is demonstrably false. It's there because we were ALL supposed to be willing to act as soldiers to protect our homeland, if needed, so we wouldn't need a military-industrial complex. It's not the GOVERNMENT you should be afraid of ... it's the MILITARY that's the threat my friend.
Anyone who considers themselves a '2nd Amendment Supporter' on the basis of the FF's 'intent' ... if they are remotely intellectually honest, would also be anti-military/industrial complex in ALL of it's guises.