This is our cultural baggage. A once overwhelmingly rural people, without much in the way of police forces, or a professional military, surrounded by potential enemies (some of whom had a lot of lucrative land), and in some internal areas a great fear of domestic insurrection, we included the right to have guns alongside the right to speak freely, the right to due process, and other, what we in the modern west would consider, basic human rights. There was not a lot of novelty to most of these rights. Contrary to the general American belief that we were the first to ensure these rights, most of them were lifted from the laws of the land most of us called the mother country - the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Bill of Rights was not an ideological revolution, but an evolution of well established laws that many Americans were familiar with.

And then there is popular historical revisionism which states that the Bill of Rights is some genius limitation on the powers of government that saves us from tyranny. It's just so obvious that they are necessary. But James Madison and Alexander Hamilton did not think so. In fact, they thought inclusion of enumerated rights was dangerous. That act in itself might limit our rights---government might one day declare that your rights emanate from this document, the one you are asserting is not in the text, and only the government can create rights.

Plus, the bill of rights was simply ignored when deemed expedient. Suppression of abolitionist mail. The right of due process denied under the Fugitive Slave Act, and so on. But revisionism states that this our defense against the overreach of government. Hardly. Madison had it right when he called it a mere scrap of paper giving the illusion of protection.

But I ramble. The point is that now the self-proclaimed defenders of our rights are these gun-toting jackalopes. The open carry idiots who walk down our streets with assault rifles hoping for an incident with the law. The fact is is that this right is not relevant or necessary for the bulk of now urbanized America with no need to take native lands, suppress slave revolts, police themselves, or defend against tyrannical threats.

Last edited by captainpreppy (2014-10-09 18:18:19)

How long have you been on the internet Dud?

OH! IT HURTS!

I have a pair of grenadine double monks that are quite beautiful.  Does anyone know if they fit me?

Reindeer Grenadine?

^ phenomenal.  Everyone generate a card by next Monday and it's game on.

And...

Problem wearing good clothes with my fantastic physique

Problem wearing good clothes with my fantastic handgun

fitment

methinks

Last edited by Popeye Doyle (2014-10-15 08:06:39)