A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
The only guns I've ever owned were toys. To pretend-kill with. Boys love to pretend-kill and pretend-die. And pretend-save-the-day.
As an adult I've never owned a gun. Didn't trust myself. I'm a right-brained artist who wears his emotions on his sleeve. How many gun murders are crimes of passion? Emotions in chaos. Wild rage. Jealous anguish. Paranoid delusions. And how many mass-murder/murder-suicides are committed in spite of anti-depressants and other psychological pharmaceuticals in use to 'help' a potential human time-bomb?
Just because one can own a gun doesn't mean one should.
And always when these predictable disasters happen, the great gun debate begins.
Gun ownership under the guise of the 2nd Amendment is clearly secured for the protection of a 'free state.' It's not about hunting or defending your home. It's about the ability for citizens to resist threats to their self-determined 'free state.'
So how do we protect the right of citizens to protect themselves from 'tyranny' (whether it's drug gangs, corrupt police or an Orwellian nightmare) and at the same time prohibit dangerous weapons from folks who just are not mature enough or too ill to handle the responsibility? Many of us self-select out for a variety of reasons. But too obviously many don't.
It's a difficult question to answer because the very entity in charge of gun registration and gun laws is the very entity which the Constitution protects against – a corrupt and over-reaching government. If everyone's in a satellite-triangulated, real-time database controlled by the government then the People have no protection against big-headed, small-brained boys (politicians) who always lost at King of the Hill and are in the throes of overcompensation.
When one looks at the landscape – the ever encroaching soft totalitarianism, the coup of the Executive over checks and balances, the cult of imperial militarism (the sight of US Military Jets over NFL games makes me want to puke) – one can sympathize with the gun-nuts who were clearly paranoid during the 90s, captured by 911 revenge-fervor in the 00s and now coming up for breath to see a bankrupt, desperate nation at war with itself. To the paranoid right, Obama is a Muslim, manchurian candidate, commie and Democrats are in league with Satan (which is only partially true.)
If a Soviet styled collapse happened in the good ol USA and all hell broke loose, imagine all the stressed-out, emotionally volatile folks with all those guns. Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose... Is it really so hard to imagine contingency planning by Homeland Security agencies to buy up ammo? And shouldn't the government want to get tighter control over the 'people's' gun inventory so in case of emergency it can pre-empt trouble? Prudent.
Because the whole world knows (and is waiting to see) what happens when America melts down with all those guns in the hands of so many troubled americans. The gun tragedies we've weathered so far in the US are nothing compared to what will happen in a disintegrating society of emotionally unhinged white men grasping at straws of blame.
An Aside:
But in all honesty to gun owners, it's a different world from the era when the Constitution was written. There was military parity then. The biggest thing the 'government' had was a cannon that could shoot a quarter mile. Everything else was guns. But a Glock can't defeat a bunker-buster, or microwaves, or drones or an entire toy-chest of weapons courtesy of the world's biggest entitlement program: The military-industrial-complex.
And in case you haven't noticed, that 'free state' thing? Long gone. Without a fight. Because you listened to Rush Limbaugh while cleaning your guns with Vril Juice.
America is on a razor's edge. It's bankrupt culturally, morally and economically. The citizens have been
sold a bill of goods by 'leaders' on the take from criminals who dream of pillaging the common
wealth.
The Black Helicopter crowd who predict FEMA camps and UN troops running school crossing check-points see their prophecies come true with a suspension of posse comitatus, habeas corpus, a Northern Command, Drones, NSA spying, FBI sting operations, militarized local police, local/federal police integration, and a society dark with bigotry, bullies and blame. They see the government everywhere. It's an obvious truism: the more laws, the less justice.
The paranoid have fuel for their flame.
One of the Government's biggest jobs is to calm down the rabble when things get rough.
Well, it's rough right now. Emotions are on edge. It's the holidays and most people would rather blow their brains out than go into even more debt to buy whatever gadget keeps up with the Jones's. But the peer pressure of Black Friday Capitalism is intense.
The world is on fire. One shot-heard-around-the-world from chaos.
What will happen if the Euro unravels, more banks default and China comes calling? 2008 was only a wake up call. Did we? Will we be in the streets, shooting our guns in the air in American Tahir Square?
What will happen if the government puts down food-riot insurrections because the people have no food or the means to buy it?
Who knows – maybe the second amendment is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Because another way to say the Second Amendment is this: A people, in order to protect its right of self-determination and self-government, have a duty to fight against those powers who would undermine a people's right to secure a free state.
Too bad gun laws are so lax almost anyone can get a hundred.
When you get a driver's license you've got to prove your ability to operate the vehicle safely and within the law.
Is a gun license such a bad idea? Or a Sane license?
Something, yes. What, a bit more complicated.