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Freedom and fear: The foundations of America's deadly gun culture

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By Paul HANDLEY

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the byproduct of a gun industry business model designed to profit from increasing hatred, fear, and conspiracy

You just have to listen to the gun supporters for a few seconds to see this is true. Weak, malleable, insecure servile minds who jump at their own shadows. Sad.

4 ( +9 / -5 )

bass4funkToday  11:05 pm JST 

No, the 2nd amendment ALLOWS me to own a firearm and allows me the given right to defend myself, family and property

No, it says:

“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.”

It was to maintain a militia to maintain the security of states against invasion or insurrection.

What well-regulated militia do you belong to? The state national guard? And do you bring you personal weapon to guard meetings?

3 ( +4 / -1 )

The point is that an armed society can never be enslaved. The first step towards enslaving a nation is to disarm the populace. That is how the British were able to rule my country for over 2 centuries.

Centuries ago. Americans need guns now to defend themselves from Americans. Fear of the other and adherence to a long gone past are enslaving Americans today.

US owes its freedom to guns and patriots. It astounds me that folks in the US are ready to attack the second amendment which keeps Americans free and strong.

It owes its freedom to genocide and slavery, since you seem so keen on history.

If a civilian does not enjoy the right to bear arms then he is a slave already and he does not even realise it.

Why is this only in The US? Over half of the US and most citizens around the world are slaves?

I’ll take being able to go outside without the fear of being shot. I think I’m freer thanks.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

The US is a violent and murderous society and the proliferation of handguns hasn’t made Americans more free.

Americans have less personal freedom than most countries. Go buy a beer and sit on a blanket in a park in Japan. No one will bother you. Try it in the US and you’ll be in handcuffs and lucky if you don’t get tased.

The number one cause of death of children in the US is now from a bullet. Close to 40,000 people are killed by gunfire every year. 50,000 Americans died in 10 years of the Vietnam War. Nine times more people are killed in the US by gunfire than in Afghanistan.

Americans are safer going to war than going to work. More people are killed in one night in any small city in the US than a year in Japan.

America is at war with itself.

I have a gun in my house (in a good neighborhood - the house next door is for sale for $1.1 million) because all the bad guys have guns. I’m at war with bad guys in a society that is out of control.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

The right of militias such as the proud boys, the oathkeepers, and the three percenters, to arm themselves in case they need to overthrow a tyrannical government, is protected by the constitution.

So the condition while supposedly guaranteeing safety and security, also essentially prevents a stable society. The literally baked the means of overthrow of the government into the document itself.

Real good constitution…

1 ( +2 / -1 )

As Admiral Yamamoto once said - You can not invade mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.

Who on earth would want to invade The US? The only people killing Americans are Americans.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Citizens of other countries who do not enjoy the right to bear arms will always be slaves.

EvilBuddha, I respectfully disagree. Organized resistance groups will generally be able to obtain weapons whether legal or not. The British Empire's control of its colonies came mainly through the classic divide and rule tactics, and rewarding those who did its bidding. If you openly carry weapons in sight of invading powers, you will be killed. If you keep them hidden, and use them for specific purposes, you may have a chance. I'm thinking of Ireland and the French Resistance during World War 2. The American situation was somewhat different. It was the colonizers who took control.

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Why is this only in The US? Over half of the US and most citizens around the world are slaves?

Of course they are. It's like the Matrix. They are living a dream where they think they are free. But they will always be slaves of their governments.

So what do you do? Shoot the tax man?

How does packin’ a rod keep you free from the US government? Outside of your imagination, real world examples would be nice.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Bob FosseJune 25  07:33 am JST

the byproduct of a gun industry business model designed to profit from increasing hatred, fear, and conspiracy

You just have to listen to the gun supporters for a few seconds to see this is true. Weak, malleable, insecure servile minds who jump at their own shadows. Sad.

And these self-styled 'warriors' never served a day in the service, and they just blubber about 'protecting themselves/the country' from minorities, immigrants, non-whites and let's not forget - JEWS. They're not man enough to serve in the military but they sure preach about being persecuted and they belch their hatred for others. They use Amend 2 as an excuse for criminal activity.

 sounds like Americans have the right to form a militia, and be armed doing so.

Just as there is no requirement that a militia must be formed, there is no requirement the people must be armed.

That was in 1788. It's 2022. Does that excuse the gangs like the Bloods and Crips? In the meantime Wayne LaPierre keeps shrieking his hysterical lies, profits from it all and sits back and giggles like the verbal Gadhafi that he is. Big money from big lies.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The left thinks that by throwing baseless euphemisms around that gun owners will feel belittled and ashamed because insults is all they have and nothing more, now that is sad.

Bleating about ‘the left’ again.

I keep telling you and you keep not listening, I’m not ‘the left’.

People who disagree with you, which is most people, are not ‘the left’.

Until you get over that mental hurdle you have zero legitimacy to respond to anything.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Unless the Supreme Court has been reading and interpreting the 2nd Amendment incorrectly the last 180 years or whatever, sounds like Americans have the right to form a militia, and be armed doing so.

Yeah, keep spinning there buddy, that faulty argument won’t win in any constitutional law debate.

Just as there is no requirement that a militia must be formed, there is no requirement the people must be armed.

Ok, and you’re the guy that will change our 2nd amendment? You don’t think the smartest minds on the left legal and constitutional scholars didn’t think about that? Of course they did and they lost every single time.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Before 2008 the US Supreme Court adhered to the "collective rights" argument regarding the 2nd Amendment.  A collective rights theory of the Second Amendment asserts that citizens do not have an individual right to possess guns and that local, state, and federal legislative bodies therefore possess the authority to regulate firearms without implicating a constitutional right inasmuch as the right to "bear arms" was a necessity for each state to have a "well regulated militia". A modern example are Swiss Army Reserves where each reservist is required to maintain a military grade firearm and ammo at home, but are not free to use it as they wish whenever or wherever they wish. The weapon is issued for the sole purpose of defending Switzerland. This collective rights concept was codified into precedent with  United States v. Miller, 307 U.S. 174. There, the Court adopted a collective rights approach, determining that Congress could regulate a sawed-off shotgun which moved in interstate commerce under the National Firearms Act of 1934 because the evidence did not suggest that the shotgun. Writing for the court, Justice James McReynolds famously dismissed the defendants case with this statement: "the absence of any evidence tending to show that possession or use of a 'shotgun having a barrel of less than eighteen inches in length' at this time has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia, we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument." McReynolds added that "certainly it is not within judicial notice that this weapon is any part of the ordinary military equipment or that its use could contribute to the common defense." He also noted that many states had adopted gun-control laws over the years.

This precedent stood for nearly 70 years until 2008, when the U.S. Supreme Court revisited the issue in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller, 478 F.3d 370. The plaintiff in Heller challenged the constitutionality of a Washington D.C. law which prohibited the possession of handguns. In a 5-4 decision, the Court struck down the D.C. handgun ban as violative of that right. The Court meticulously detailed the history and tradition of the Second Amendment at the time of the Constitutional Convention and proclaimed that the Second Amendment established an individual right for U.S. citizens to possess firearms. The Court carved out Miller as an exception to the general rule that Americans may possess firearms, claiming that law-abiding citizens cannot use sawed-off shotguns for any law-abiding purpose. Similarly, the Court in dicta stated that firearm regulations would not implicate the Second Amendment if that weaponry cannot be used for law-abiding purposes. Further, the Court suggested that the United States Constitution would not disallow regulations prohibiting criminals and the mentally ill from firearm possession.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/307/174

https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/07-290.ZS.html

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

It owes its freedom to genocide and slavery, since you seem so keen on history.

Natives were cut down because they did not have guns like the colonizers. Africans were enslaved since they did not bear arms unlike the white man.

This historical distortion needs to be corrected. All law abiding Americans today, regardless of color, race and heritage should arm themselves.

The America of my dreams is the land of the free, home of the brave where all law abiding folks be it black, brown, white, yellow or any other colour are armed to the teeth. And all thugs, racists, terrorists and criminals are either incarcerated or dead.

That is the great American dream worth fighting for.

Why is this only in The US? Over half of the US and most citizens around the world are slaves?

Of course they are. It's like the Matrix. They are living a dream where they think they are free. But they will always be slaves of their governments.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

What do you do when you are in Fukuoka?

Nothing until I get back to my other home in the states and then I go up to the mountains and head to the shooting range.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

The first step towards enslaving a nation is to disarm the populace. That is how the British were able to rule my country for over 2 centuries.

EvilBuddha, this is highly anachronistic. You're conjuring a picture of a colonising power arriving on 'your' shores and taking over the gool ol' USA. We were one and the same people, and George Washington was a British general. The British ruled the British parts of North America because they were British, and everyone in them.

And, by the way, apropos of nothing, you could never have won your War of Independence without French help, and we devoted only 8% of our military might to your war. We had much bigger fish to fry in Europe and were fighting you with both hands tied behind our backs. We were still fighting Napoleon in 1812, when we turned the White House black.

Having said all that, I support your right to bear arms and I thank God we are the best of friends these days. God Bless the USA!

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

@Lord Dartmouth

Nope I am not an American. I have never been to the US.

Your ancestors ruled and exploited my country for over 2 centuries because they disarmed the martial races who gave them a tough fight. After that it was just a simple thing of exploiting local feuds and pitting one side against the other.

That is why I understand that it was guns which won America her freedom and guns which keep Americans free from being enslaved today. Citizens of other countries who do not enjoy the right to bear arms will always be slaves. Either to foreign invaders or, in these times, to their own governments.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

And these self-styled 'warriors' never served a day in the service,

So what? As Long as you're a law-abiding citizen and pass all security and safety training, there shouldn’t be any reason as to why you should be barred from owning a firearm.

*and they just blubber about 'protecting themselves/the country' from minorities, immigrants, non-whites and let's not forget - JEWS. *

The funny thing is these people that you mentioned are a minority themselves that primarily live in the boondocks and want to be left alone.

They're not man enough to serve in the military but they sure preach about being persecuted and they belch their hatred for others.

Who is they? The average gun owner? Does that include minorities that live in minority community with high crime stats that are law-abiding and own a gun but haven’t served in the military are they spiteful hateful racists?

They use Amend 2 as an excuse for criminal activity.

Not the majority of law-abiding Americans

.That was in 1788. It's 2022. Does that excuse the gangs like the Bloods and Crips?

The big war between those two factions ended in the mid 90’s

*In the meantime Wayne LaPierre keeps shrieking his hysterical lies, profits from it all and sits back and giggles like the verbal Gadhafi that he is. *Big money from big lies.

Seriously, what are you talking about? The bottom line is, minorities that live in high crime areas are at most risk for violence and the law-abiding residents that have no other alternative to protecting themselves purchase a firearm have the absolute right to do so, it has nothing to do with white people other than white liberals would strip the rights of these people if they could and that’s shameful and pathetic!

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

As Long as you're a law-abiding citizen and pass all security and safety training

How about for 16-year olds? Kids have a right to 2A too since it says "shall not be infringed"

it was guns which won America her freedom and guns which keep Americans free from being enslaved today

Too bad American natives didn't have arms to defend themselves from from being exploited by Europeans

If a civilian does not enjoy the right to bear arms then he is a slave already and he does not even realise it.

Japan?

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

You just have to listen to the gun supporters for a few seconds to see this is true. Weak, malleable, insecure servile minds who jump at their own shadows. Sad.

The left thinks that by throwing baseless euphemisms around that gun owners will feel belittled and ashamed because insults is all they have and nothing more, now that is sad.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Centuries ago. Americans need guns now to defend themselves from Americans. Fear of the other and adherence to a long gone past are enslaving Americans today. 

No, the 2nd amendment ALLOWS me to own a firearm and allows me the given right to defend myself, family and property. Why is it that the President of the US and Congress or Hollywood celebs or even business execs can buy the best protection, but I can't? Why? Because Europeans don't like it?

US owes its freedom to guns and patriots. It astounds me that folks in the US are ready to attack the second amendment which keeps Americans free and strong.

Give me a break, no one cares, they can't vote, sway or change our constitution so whatever they think about the gun issue is irrelevant.

I’ll take being able to go outside without the fear of being shot. I think I’m freer thanks.

Well, we all have our opinions, my freedom allows me to purchase how many firearms I want and it gives me a peace of mind and if outsiders don't like or agree with it, that is perfectly ok.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

The answer, experts say, lies both in the traditions underpinning the country's winning its freedom from Britain

The British were able to rule India by disarming the population. The martial races in India like the Sikhs, Rajputs and Marathas who had a tradition of owning swords and guns and who were at loggerheads with the British were the first to be disarmed. That is why the East India Company never needed more than a few thousand soldiers to rule a country the size of India. India turned into a slave nation because Indians were disarmed.

If America’s founding fathers had not thought of the right to bear arms, the US would have been a third world hellhole like India today where only criminals and politicians (who are even bigger criminals) own guns.

The US will always be the land of the free, home of the brave because it has the second amendment and also because it has patriots for whom that right is sacred and inviolable.

As Admiral Yamamoto once said - You can not invade mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.

-5 ( +3 / -8 )

Freedom and fear: The foundations of America's deadly gun culture

Strange how some extremists try and make this THE issue in the US, when more people die in automotive related accidents, by hospital infections, from drug overdose, not to mention the high abortion rate.

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

Peter NeilToday  11:50 pm JST

No, it says:

“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.”

It was to maintain a militia to maintain the security of states against invasion or insurrection.

What well-regulated militia do you belong to? The state national guard? And do you bring you personal weapon to guard meetings?

Unless the Supreme Court has been reading and interpreting the 2nd Amendment incorrectly the last 180 years or whatever, sounds like Americans have the right to form a militia, and be armed doing so.

Just as there is no requirement that a militia must be formed, there is no requirement the people must be armed.

But they can do both separately if they want.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

@Bob Fosse

The point is that an armed society can never be enslaved. The first step towards enslaving a nation is to disarm the populace. That is how the British were able to rule my country for over 2 centuries.

US owes its freedom to guns and patriots. It astounds me that folks in the US are ready to attack the second amendment which keeps Americans free and strong.

If a civilian does not enjoy the right to bear arms then he is a slave already and he does not even realise it.

-7 ( +3 / -10 )

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