There is a strange and escalating logic at work in the history of gun ownership in America, where fears exist akin to the nineteenth-century frontier mentality. There exists today a parallel fear by many homeowners that they must, like their nineteenth century cousins, protect their property and the lives of loved ones with a gun.
This need to own gun (s) is endemic to the American psyche. From all evidence, this fear of confiscation will exist far into the future. One may wonder why America, and not other democracies, have such a fetish with guns. Canada is mostly a frontier nation, yet they have strict restriction on handgun ownership. Canada allows its citizens to own only long guns (rifles). The country usually suffers fewer that 50 homicides a year by guns. We have ten times Canada's population but more than 100 times the number of deaths by shootings.
Fear has been fed into the American mind by our extremist gun rights political leaders. They, along with off-the-wall news outlets (FOX News), have propagandized how we think about guns. These radical politicians and their backer, the National Rifle Association, have corrupted the national dialog on gun safety.
The NRA has usurped logic and reason from the American Mind by claiming any restriction on gun ownership is "a slippery slope" that leads to gun confiscation. They have misinterpreted the Second Amendment of the Constitution to suggest that in order to preserve it all gun restrictions must be opposed, even if it means unnecessary lives lost. The NRA believes that any restriction on gun ownership is a threat to the Second amendment. Recall, that in the early twentieth century, congress banned private citizen from owning machine guns. So much for the illogic of NRA's mantra: the slippery slope.
The recent defeat of a bill backed by 90% of Americans to require background checks on all gun purchases testifies to the idea that our politicians are frightened of the NRA lobby. Now it's clear, the Senate represents the NRA, Gun manufacturers and the many allied corporation, not the American people. Let us pray the American Mind can soon think clearly.
Second Amendment
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.
From Wikipedia
The Second Amendment (Amendment II to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights that protects the right to keep and bear arms. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights.
The right to bear arms predates the Bill of Rights; the Second Amendment was based partially on the right to bear arms in English common-law, and was influenced by the English Bill of Rights of 1689. This right was described by Blackstone as an auxiliary right, supporting the natural rights of self-defense, resistance to oppression, and the civic duty to act in concert in defense of the state. Academic inquiry into the purpose, scope, and effect of the amendment has been controversial and subject to numerous interpretations.
In United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (1875), the Supreme Court ruled that "[t]he right to bear arms is not granted by the Constitution; neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence. The Second Amendments means no more than that it shall not be infringed by Congress, and has no other effect than to restrict the powers of the National Government."
In United States v. Miller, 307 U.S. 174 (1939), the Supreme Court ruled that the amendment "[protects arms that had a] reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia". This ruling has been widely described as ambiguous, and ignited a debate on whether the amendment protected an individual right, or a collective militia right.
In District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment "codified a pre-existing right" and that it "protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home" but also stated that "the right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose". They also clarified that many longstanding prohibitions and restrictions on firearms possession listed by the Court are consistent with the Second Amendment.
In McDonald v. Chicago, 561 U.S. 3025 (2010), the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment limits state and local governments to the same extent that it limits the federal government.
See: Wikipedia
