Fearmongering ad by the NRA

[Syne]

Surprise surprise, big, centralized government advocates like the population disarmed. Just like fascists

Typical alt-right paranoid anti-govt paranoia.. Go hide in your arms bunker you cowardly gun freak!

States retain a huge amount of power, even to the point of not cooperating with the federal government (sanctuary cities/states, marijuana legalization, etc.). So I'm not really worried about a highly centralized US government just yet. But you keep trying. It's heartening to see people try so hard against overwhelming odds.

We'll just blow you away.

That sounds like a threat. Not a good idea for any forum to allow threats.

And who is "we"? Certainly you don't have the wherewithal to blow...oh, wait a second. #MeToo.

[Magical Realist]

And who is "we"?

I'm part of your big liberal conspiracy. We meet in the basement of the Pentagon every 3 months to figure out how to enslave country bumpkins.

[Syne]

And who is "we"?

I'm part of your big liberal conspiracy. We meet in the basement of the Pentagon every 3 months to figure out how to enslave country bumpkins.

Idiots don't need to conspire, even if they could, to do harm.
The sad part is that that is probably your fervent wish.

[Syne]

There is no constitutional right to have a gun. The framers said the people's right to bear arms shall not be infringed BECAUSE of the need to maintain a well-regulated militia. They had no standing army back then, so citizens could be called to battle at any time. Nowadays the only well-regulated militia is the National Guard and the U.S. Military forces, who ofcourse should have guns and be trained in using them. Citizens no longer have the responsibility for this and therefore no need for guns. It is telling that at the NRA headquarters there is a sign with the Second Amendment quoted on it EXCEPT for the militia clause. That tells you immediately how they are misinterpreting it. They essentially cherry picked one phrase out of its surrounding context to support their financially-driven cause.

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

Erroneous decision based on a conservative-majority court under GWB. Did you know the SCOTUS once supported slavery?

John Paul Stevens: Repeal the Second Amendment
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/opini...dment.html

Stevens was a SCOTUS dissenting opinion in DC v Heller. So yes, those who think the Second Amendment doesn't protect the rights of individuals (even though every other amendment in the Bill of Rights does) do want it repealed. And there's a history of very quick slippery slopes on gun control.

Britain went from its Prime Minister saying he would "laud the day when there was a rifle in every cottage in England" in 1900 to having "may issue" gun permits like leftist states do here in 1920. A mere 16 years latter, they had outright outlawed more types of guns and mandated "safe storage" which, like if DC had prevailed in the Heller case, made home self-defense effectively illegal. The Brits had to beg Americans for guns when the Nazis attacked.

[Magical Realist]

The 2ND Amendment is essentially an obselete piece of verbiage that only applied to maintaining a well-regulated militia. Since the govt now does that it is no longer relevant. We should repeal it and lock up every gun nut everywhere across the U.S. This obsessive fetish for guns is a sickness of our nation that must be cured somehow.

[Syne]

Read the Federalist Papers, written by the founding fathers. Educate yourself for once.

Your irrational fear of inanimate objects is paranoid and delusional.

[Magical Realist]

Read the Federalist Papers, written by the founding fathers. Educate yourself for once.

Your irrational fear of inanimate objects is paranoid and delusional.

Not talking about a well-regulated militia, which we now have in the form of the National Guard. We are not in the business of arming anti-govt insurrectionists. Remember Ruby Ridge and Waco and the Bundy standoff?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017...ottesville

[Syne]

LOL! You probably think those incidents are all similar.

"On January 8, 2018, U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro in Las Vegas dismissed with prejudice the criminal charges against Cliven Bundy, his sons Ammon and Ryan, and co-defendant Ryan Payne regarding the standoff."
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundy_standoff

"Today, as defined by the Militia Act of 1903, the term "militia" is primarily used to describe two groups within the United States:

Organized militia – consisting of State militia forces; notably, the National Guard and Naval Militia.[9] (Note: the National Guard is not to be confused with the National Guard of the United States.)
Unorganized militia – composing the Reserve Militia: every able-bodied man of at least 17 and under 45 years of age, not a member of the National Guard or Naval Militia."
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militia_%2..._States%29

And "unorganized" doesn't mean "unregulated".

[Magical Realist]

Unorganized militia – composing the Reserve Militia: every able-bodied man of at least 17 and under 45 years of age, not a member of the National Guard or Naval Militia.

That's not a well-regulated militia. It's an unregulated mob of untrained rednecks with guns who wouldn't know their ass from a hole in the ground. The Constitution makes no mention of this group. It DOES describe the well-regulated militia though:

"Congress shall have the power ... to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress."
— US Constitution, article 1, section 8, clause 15

"The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment."
— US Constitution, article II, section 2, clause 1

[Yazata]

"Today, as defined by the Militia Act of 1903, the term "militia" is primarily used to describe two groups within the United States:

   Organized militia – consisting of State militia forces; notably, the National Guard and Naval Militia.[9] (Note: the National Guard is not to be confused with the National Guard of the United States.)
   Unorganized militia – composing the Reserve Militia: every able-bodied man of at least 17 and under 45 years of age, not a member of the National Guard or Naval Militia."
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militia_%2..._States%29

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/246