Bangs
Live by the sword…
What is the result of this having the Second Amendment?
It’s an exceptionally high level of gun deaths.
Nearly 47,000 people died of gun-related injuries in the United States in 2023, according to the latest available statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While the number of gun deaths in the U.S. fell for the second consecutive year, it remained among the highest annual totals on record.
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In 2023, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 46,728 people died from gun-related injuries, according to the CDC. That figure includes gun murders and gun suicides, along with three less common types of gun-related deaths the CDC tracks: those that involved law enforcement, those that were accidental, and those whose circumstances could not be determined.
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How does the gun death rate in the U.S. compare with other countries?
The gun death rate in the U.S. is much higher than in most other nations, particularly developed nations.
Is it worth the cost?
They throw the term ‘second amendment rights’ around like they know what it means. It doesn’t mean being able to secure weapons of war for hunting purposes. It also doesn’t mean being able to shoot your neighbor if they violate your property rights. What it really means is for people to be able to organize and implement an effective resistance against an authoritarian, monarchal, or dictatorial government. Which is what we have going on now. The so called 2A advocates are pretty ignorant about what the framers intended, and know very little about what constitutional laws mean. The fact that we are allowed to own firearms doesn’t entail thay we can use them for any purpose we intend. The president should know this and doesn’t, along with other “freedom” advocates who don’t have the faintest idea of what it is that we need to be free from. The current style of federal leadership is what was warned against by the framers, and why the second amendment was written. The irony of those who make the most noise about 2A rights, are also the ones who installed the very type of president who it should be used against. A convicted felon, twice impeached, who does whatever he wants regardless of the laws of the land. Trump is the most unAmerican president that we could ever dream of, let alone have — twice. A malicious, illiterate moron who’s an embarrassment and a bane to us all.
Expanding on Twiliter’s post, much of the demand for the 2nd Amendment was driven by the desire for the slaveowners to be able to organize posses to hunt for escaped slaves, or quell slave rebellions. This came to light shortly after Philando Castille was killed for declaring that he was a black man with a gun. The 2nd amendment was not absolute when the Black Panthers were active in Oakland, either.
https://www.npr.org/2021/06/02/1002107670/historian-uncovers-the-racist-roots-of-the-2nd-amendment
The phrase “the right of the people” was not intended to mean that the right of individuals to bear arms shall not be infringed, and was not interpreted to mean that until 2008’s Supreme Court ruling in District of Columbia V Heller and the idea that the purpose is to protect our rights from tyrants is belied by the response to the fact that we have a tyrant in office now and the Defenders support him.
The Second Amendment says nothing about slaves, and certainly nothing about ‘resisting’ the government. The ‘well regulated militia’ is supposed to protect the ‘free state’ from enemies domestic and foreign. The Whisky Rebellion and Shay’s Rebellion come to mind. The early U.S. government being reluctant to take on the expense of a standing army.
Contemporary gun nuts fantasize about overthrowing the actual state and establishing a white-nationalist, ‘KKKristian” theocracy. The militia is supposed to protect us against them.
Yes John, it does. Domestic enemies are those who stand opposed to (or are completely ignorant of) the ideals of our liberal democracy and representative republic as laid out by the Constitution and its amendments, including those amendments that prohibit slavery. The second amendment is not a stand alone statute, it is only part of a wider and expanded upon set of principles — American principles. Indeed, a white nationalist theocracy is a threat to that, but also the intent was to protect against any set of lawless elites or autocrats.
I will reiterate, people like Charlie Kirk have a very skewed idea about what the second amendment means in its context and intent. Just like people who think that the first amendment says that we can say anything we want. These rudimentary interpretations are part of, and reinforced by pop culture and politics, and the simpletons who don’t understand the Constitution and it’s more profound principles perpetuate these misconceptions. The second amendment does not have to exist at the expense of any gun violence or deaths. Nope. Not even. The problem lies elsewhere.