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In reply to the discussion: Gabrielle Giffords’ Husband Smacks Down Wayne LaPierre [View all]jeff47
(26,549 posts)29. There was a national security angle
Washington and a few others didn't want a standing federal army. The theory of the time was that monarchs with standing armies would always decide to use those armies to conquer.
So the idea was to deny the federal government an army, so that the feds would be dependent on the states for defense in the hopes that the feds would not be able to go on offense.
The founders had multiple reasons to do damn near everything in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
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There is a huge problem with having guns available only to people with no history of mental health
JDPriestly
Jan 2013
#2
That would make sense except that if keeping and bearing arms is a fundamental right,
JDPriestly
Jan 2013
#50
Also, the decision about what conditions are a mental illness is political and somewhat arbitrary
Blandocyte
Jan 2013
#22
Yes. The diagnosis of just one doctor who might have some ulterior motive or have a problem
JDPriestly
Jan 2013
#43
Being denied a gun > Being shot and killed by someone with mental issues
Tommy_Carcetti
Jan 2013
#54
Your arguments might persuade me, but I'm not sure they would persuade a majority of Supreme
JDPriestly
Jan 2013
#42
If it only affects people who have been committed it would still miss a lot of people and affect
JDPriestly
Jan 2013
#41
When you deny a person a fundamental right, you have to do it very carefully.
JDPriestly
Jan 2013
#51
I've made the same argument regarding a number of your points and on top of those....
tpsbmam
Jan 2013
#59
Almost every state, including non-slaveholding states had the same provision in their state constitu
AtheistCrusader
Jan 2013
#9
A general could use his standing army to take over Congress & the Executive department
Kolesar
Jan 2013
#24
like Edward Teller, Herman Kahn, and the rest of the Powell Memo instrumentalities,
MisterP
Jan 2013
#57