Quote from Scataphagos:
Piezoe is a fool.
The Constitution and our system of "Checks and Balances" were not about "farmers, muskets, or modern things"... they were/are about "the nature of power-hungry men and governments".... as applicable today as when drafted.
Naturally, the most intelligent and articulate poster is regarded as a fool by the rabble that populate this forum.
No one has proffered a reasonable counter argument to Piezoe's observations that arms today include weaponry that no sane person would expect a citizen to own: Nukes, biological and chemical weapons, cluster bombs, etc. Is the 2nd amendment a blank check to possess any kind of arm?
And all this hyper over reaction by the right isn't about the 2nd amendment. They don't even understand the 2nd amendment.
A Democracy and a republican state is structured to prevent tyranny and it has worked well. We vote out the old and in the new. The 2nd Amendment wasn't put in there to prevent a crazy President from creating a tyranny. When President overreachs his authority, the Democratic process pushes them back. (Perhaps that will be the case in Wisconsin if a President decides to use the executive branch to circumvent Congress and the Supreme court in firearms control, but Obama has done NOTHING so far. However, the bill as it is written now will probably be deemed unconstitional by the Supreme Court.) The 2nd amendment was designed to both allow states to respond quickly to foreign threats and to internal ones such as uprisings. In the latter case for example, if too many LEAPUPS band together and decide it's time for civil war, then a level headed and armed citizenry could defeat them. But we don't need that. The police can do it.
But again, the hard right isn't really concerned about the Constitution. They are concerned about power and want to drown out reasoned voices in a civil debate. Think Alex Jones. The want to fan the flames of paranoia and exploit the insecurities of people. Thus the need to paint the opposition as Stalinist. That's why this mantra of fighting "tyranny" is being repeated by the lemmings on websites everywhere.
The best way to get the hard right to get behind gun control is to fully arm minorities. If all the blacks and Hispanics were to arm themselves to the teeth and start openly carrying guns where allowed, the white politicians would issue new gun control laws faster than Lucrum could scream "THE NIGGER'S GOT A GUN!"
It happened in California in 1967. The Black Panthers began carrying firearms openly, and legally. They even marched into the State Capitol bearing arms. The legislature quickly pass new gun control laws. And the Governor signed the bill faster than Lucrum could scream...well you know.
That Governor was Ronald Reagan.