The Second Amendment--The Right to Bear Arms?
The last stanza of Cheyenne, a western hero is:
"Move along, Cheyenne --- Next pasture's always so green. Driftin' on, Cheyenne don't forget the things you have seen, And when you settle down where will it be? Cheyenne! Cheyenne!"
From Hugh O'Brian in Wyatt Earp:
"Wyatt Earp, Wyatt Earp, brave courageous and bold, long live his fame and long live his glory, and long may his story be told."
You may argue with me but there are lots of stories from the old west and from today's America in which the armed have saved their families and the families of many others from being harmed... by being armed.
The robbers and the thieves and the killers will never be without their weapons no matter how hard those who believe everybody is OK trump their message. Only a person armed with similar or greater force will be able to stop a perpetrator from creating more harm.
Do you support the right to self-defense? I do! I wish nobody means harm but only a dummy thinks it will ever always be that way. The Founding Fathers believed the people should be able to defend themselves and they were miffed in their days in the old world when the King pronounced miserable tributes and they had no recourse but to become prisoners of the crown. Sidearms and rifles helped them even the score.
Is the second amendment mischaracterized when we conclude that it gives ordinary citizens the right to bear arms? Or is this what the founding fathers actually meant? Why would anybody have the right to bear arms? Would it be to kill their neighbors as in the Hatfield's and the McCoy's? I don't think so. Only in a world without bad guys would anybody be able to decide they do not have to defend themselves.
It is not about hunting. The 2nd Amendment assures that each citizen has a right to keep and bear arms to defend his/her life, liberty, and property. There are bad guys out there wanting to take away our citizen's rights and my vote will be to sustain the second amendment and also recognize that it also exists to help protect ordinary citizens from an intrusive confiscatory government that one day may no longer be on the side of the ordinary people. The Founding fathers loved the idea of checks and balances, debits and credits. It is all about keeping one side from getting too powerful. The side the founders worried most about was a national government deciding that it was as powerful as King George's England and thus, could make the people subject to a crown again.