Should The Us Second Amendment (Adopted In 1791) Be Scrapped ?

[Canary42]

Here is an example of the sort of people who support the "right to bear arms" across the pond.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/father-of-sixyearold-boy-killed-in-sandy-hook-massacre-heckled-by-progun-activists-8471178.html

How cruel, insenstive, and evil.

[DTCwordfan]

Well good luck to getting an overturning of the 2nd amendment which was enshrined in the Bill of Rights. Bit like the Synod for protecting against change, you will need 70% of both Houses.

Mission Impossible.

Best way around is legislation of certain weapons and their accessories, i.e the bullets.

[Zeuhl]

/Why do people need guns anyway? /

Over to you Clannad

You had an articulate answer to that one - I disagreed with most of it - but as you are a collector and licensed to carry a concealed weapon you are eminently qualified

[Clanad]

I'm unsre of how triggerhappy arrives at his/her opinion, but they're welcome to it anyway, no matter how misguided...

The Second Amendment was proposed and adopted in 1791 and was seen as a method of protecting the citizens, or more accurately the citizens having the ability to protect themselves agains tyrnnical government.

Our friends at Wiki have an interesting hostorical connetion with the Mother Country as the source of the Amendment:

"The right to have arms in English history is believed to have been regarded as a long-established natural right in English law, auxiliary to the natural and legally defensible rights to life.[10] The English Bill of Rights 1689 emerged from a tempestuous period in English politics during which two issues were major sources of conflict: the authority of the King to govern without the consent of Parliament and the role of Catholics in a country that was becoming ever more Protestant. Ultimately, the Catholic James II was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution, and his successors, the Protestants William III and Mary II, accepted the conditions that were codified in the Bill. One of the issues the Bill resolved was the authority of the King to disarm its subjects, after James II had attempted to disarm many Protestants, and had argued with Parliament over his desire to maintain a standing (or permanent) army.[11] The bill states that it is acting to restore "ancient rights" trampled upon by James II, though some have argued that the English Bill of Rights created a new right to have arms, which developed out of a duty to have arms." (As copied form Wikipedia w/footnote references).

[starone]

My husband had a lot of guns and a kinder, gentler man would be hard to find. He just liked the skill of shooting at targets, never animals, he was much too soft for that. He had licences of course and as I recall just had to show he was a responsible person and say what and where he was going to use them. Police came to interview him now and then but there was never any trouble.

[Clanad]

Ooops... response to Sandy... last paragraph should be "now left up to States..."

[Clanad]

Interestingly in the news within the last few weeks was the discovery, in England, of a "casche" of weapons, including long guns, hand guns and shotguns, found hidden in a wall of an old house that was undergoing remodeling. Seems they were hidden there in response to the British government's confiscation of firearms following Dunblane... I read articles that seem to suggest that such "casches" aren't unusual but most just haven't been discovered...

[DTCwordfan]

Amendments 1 to 10 that make up the Bill of Rights, signed in Sept 1789, keep Constitutional lawyers in fat fees, the debate being the intent of the draftees and Senators of the time...

As to the second, there was at least six voted propositionss to the 2nd Amendment before final ratification, the wording being Clanad's version. However go back to Madison's original drafting and proposition, the weight of the people to bear arms changes in gravitas to being the prima sub-clause.

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person."

[emmie]

if the reports are to be believed, and who can say, there are over 300 million guns in the USA, now we know that not every person will have one, some have many, but that doesn't come close to explaining why so many are needed, wanted. The day after this school shooting, a gun shop owner was being interviewed, he said that they had their busiest day ever, why?

[DTCwordfan]

Why - because they could see an Obama crack-down on multi-discharge weapons. One has to remember that they had an act until fairly recently that limited ownership of these weapons and that expired and was not renewed.

[Clanad]

Apologies, triggerquote[hippy] ...

I often wonder, as a proud descendant of English and Scots ancestors, just how citizens of the U.K. would provide for themselves today if another Churchill had cause to make another speech with these lines:

"... we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender..."

I guess you could use thrown rocks or Uncle Hubert's old sword, no?

[emmie]

same way that prohibition brought out the bootleggers, racketeers, then banning guns would make the situation worse. However banning the bullets needed in these super powered assault weapons might be a start, but i wouldn't hold my breath.

[emmie]

Churchill and the British people were facing a long war, a bloody one, which cost millions and millions of lives right across the globe, not sure how one can compare that to an insatiable, for some, appetite for weapons.

[DTCwordfan]

It was in force from 1994 to 2004 with both houses under Republican control - by a hairline so that it really came down to individual conscience, the NRA going into bat heavily for repeal, there had also been action against the house under the challenge of the 2nd, and upheld.....

[society]

"banning the bullets needed in these super powered assault weapons might be a start,"

The desperate might start making their own at home.
People find means and ways to do most things in times of dire need.

[emmie]

dire need, who the hell, apart from rambo, needs these types of weapons.

[DTCwordfan]

Now one could be cynical and say its an American's right to protect his property and family - and his own safety. In many States you don't mess around with car rage.....And that's necessary with all these Mexicans and Cubans streaming in.....

No, more seriously, em, we must remember that gun ownership is slowly coming down as a percentage of the population
http://www.statisticbrain.com/gun-ownership-statistics-demographics/
That is the trend that Obama et al. need to push on, perhaps more persuasive than bans and sending the whole industry underground - Prohibition violation lessons should have taught Americans something.