Quite amazing how threads progress!
Lucas Light Feat:
You are correct that owning a "gun" is not a human right, but defending oneselve is a human right.
The founders of America did not write the Second Amendment so that we could hunt wabbits to our hearts content. The Second was written as a tool of freedom. It was a way for a society as a last resort to protect itself from criminals and from an opressive government.
What is one of the first things dictators do in their grab for absolute power? They seize private weapons and make it illegal to own them. How can they have absolute power with an armed citizenry?
The Second Amendment was also written to ensure the citizen was able to be equally armed as any common soldier in a standing Army. Again, checks and balances.
Our very own revolution began over King George's attempt to seize guns and powder in Lexington and Concord. He knew the quickest way to stop the growing rebellion was to take away their means to fight. This was the last straw for the colonialist and they refused to give up their arms.
Colgodot:
You said:
Slavery was everywhere in colonial America and it was a product of the Old World, not an American creation. The socio-political movement to free the slaves began in Boston. That movement was Democracy in action. The Republic - white men sitting in a room decided what was for the best of everyone - is what continued slavery, not a vote of the people. Further the Confederacy was itself a form of republic, and the southern citizens were never asked to vote on the issue. Oh, and it was the Supreme Court (only 9 men!) who decided that "blacks had no rights" - before the Civil War, y'know.
Slavery was illegal in the northern colonies. One of the main reasons the Colonist pushed for separation from England was because of the slave trade. The Continental Congress tried several attempts to end slavery in the colonies but King George vetoed their legislation. Many of the founders were passionate abolishonist, such as John Adams.
If you read the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson list the "barbaric act" of the slave trade as on of the reasons given for independence.
Then, one of the first Acts passed after the Constitution was ratified was in order for a territory to become a state, it had to become a free state. But southern democrats waited until most of the founders had died off and in 1820, passed the Missouri Compromise, which said that for every free state admitted, there had to be a slave state. If these pro-slavery democrats failed, so would slavery. But unfortunately we needed a war to end it. It would have ended well before the 1860's.
All one has to do is trace the history of gun control in America and you will find that it started in the south immediately after the freeing of the slaves. Southerners scared of retaliation pushed for gun taxes and written test as a prerequisite for gun ownership knowing most blacks couldn't afford a tax, and could read or write. Plus, why would the KKK want an armed blackman when they went on their midnight sheet raids?
You said:
Did you clip that from the NRA? If you don't call it a "violent gun culture," what is it then? Certainly not "non-violent." Certainly not "non-gun." "Violent mostly-gun culture?" Hmm.
No, I am not a member of the NRA but I own a rifle or two and I know several people who own guns. There is nothing violent about it. I've never in my life seen a violent gun act by an honest law-abiding gun owner.
Gun violence is perpetrated by violent people who own guns illegally. It takes a dark heart to kill, not a gun.
But as the saying goes "Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my gun".
you said:
most of the people who rant about PC are just upset they can't use the word "nigger" in polite conversation any more.
But I guess it's okay to say things like:
"self-righteous pesudo-Christians" :rolleyes
I don't know anyone who uses that word anymore, except black people. I hear that word in more rap music than anywhere else.
