With yet another mass shooting under America’s belt the citizens of the Unites States will once again look to their political leaders to do everything… to do nothing… while addressing this new terror on society. Arguments will focus on gun control laws and the failures of the mental health system; some will stray toward the violence in video games and the tv/movie industry. When it’s all said and done it will be the Constitution that should set the frame work for the solutions.
The 2nd Amendment will be recited religiously by those opposed to any new gun control laws, and while I am a great believer in our Constitution and the 2nd Amendment the circumstances in which it was written and the history of the time should not be ignored.
Adopted in 1791 with the Bill of Rights, the 2nd Amendment was heavily influenced by the English Bill of Rights from 1689. The English Bill of Rights was in part to re-establish the rights of Protestants in England regarding bearing arms, many of which were disarmed during the reign of King James II (note that Catholics maintained this right under James II). Allowing all subject of English rule to bear arms was important as they were the means in England for “keeping watch and ward at night and to confront and capture suspicious persons”. Every Englishman had an obligation to “protect the Kings Peace and assist in the suppression of riots”.
These English duties didn’t stop at the English Channel but carried on to the new world and the English settlers in the colonies. Without the right to bear arms they would not have be able to create militias, participate in law enforcement, repel invasions, or provide self-defense along the vast colonial frontier.
As good students of American History we all know how the colonist militias held out against the professional armies under King George during the American Revolution (at least until the establishment of the Continental Army). The English army in the colonies both prior to and during the War of Independence created a fear in the colonist and framers of the Constitution that prevented the formation of a standing army in America until the late 19th early 20th centuries; during the War of 1812, War with Mexico and Civil War, armies were formed from state militias. For over a hundred years the survival of our nation, the ability to protect ourselves was based on the citizens having the right to bear arms. In 1903 militias were replaced with the formation of the United States National Guard.
Let’s also consider the weaponry of the times, flintlock muskets and rifles. Loading, aiming and firing these highly inaccurate guns would take anywhere from 5 to 20 seconds based on the skill (and volley tactics) of the shooter(s); if you were not quick enough to reload there was a real potential to be struck down by your opponents sabre, or other weapon of the day; a mass shooting by an individual was highly unlikely to next to impossible.
This important Amendment, while as sacred today as it was when it was written was without doubt written under circumstances that do not entirely apply today, we have a police force, an army and national guard, we no longer suffer attacks along a frontier, tyrant government – only exist when its ‘your party’ that didn’t win. So why do we recite the 2nd Amendment following mass shooting or during discussions in Washington regarding gun control? Why do we robotically chant the words of this Amendment when they do not address this new terror on society?
The 2nd Amendment should not be the discussion, the 2nd Amendment is what gave the right to the mass shooter to purchase the firearm, no the 2nd Amendment should not be the discussion but the Constitution in whole should be, because it’s the role of the Government to enact laws to protect the citizens, because the Constitution also protects unarmed citizens from those that exercise their right to bear arms; because while many in our society are concerned with their rights, the rest are concern with their lives and the lives of their loved ones. When the US government enacts laws to protect their citizens they are not operating as a tyrant, there is no hidden agenda to disarm American, this is not an us verse you topic, this is simply following the Constitution… protect the citizens; if we live in fear of our rights, if we live in fear of our Constitution then we have failed as a Nation.