"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." -The Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States
Every time there is a mass shooting in the news, even before anyone knows the details, some left-winged lunatic jumps on his or her soapbox and declares that it is the fault of guns or that we need to get rid of "weapons of war" or high capacity magazines.
Without question, these acts of violence are tragic and need to be stopped. Nevertheless, the usual knee-jerk reaction is to instantly vilify AR-15s and suggest that they are the only guns capable of firing multiple shots in rapid succession.
They claim that mass casualties wouldn't happen if people were only allowed to possess revolver-style handguns or bolt-action single-shot hunting rifles, claiming that hunting was the reason the second amendment was written into the bill of rights.
This begs several questions. Are these claims accurate? Are guns responsible or does the shooter bear the responsibility? Are these shooters, more than not, on pharmaceuticals that are never reported in the news stories? Are guns the only way a crazy person can inflict mass casualties? Are the weapons used really weapons of war? Should the citizens of this country be limited in the number of rounds their guns can hold or how rapidly their guns can fire? Was the Second amendment written merely to allow hunting rifles or were "weapons of war" considered when the amendment was written? Was the second amendment intended to allow for a national guard and not meant for the common citizen?
In this post, we will try to answer some of those questions.
The Federalist Papers were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay who attended the Constitutional Convention to form the constitution, The Federalist Papers were submitted as newspaper articles to help the citizens understand the meaning of the various elements of the newly proposed constitution.
In Federalist Paper #46, while explaining what was proposed to be included in the US Consitution, "the father of the Constitution", James Madison, clarified that not only should the citizens be armed but that each state should have a "well-trained militia."
"To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties" -James Madison, Federalist#46
Hamilton expressed the same sentiment in Federalist Paper #29, that the citizens should be armed with their own guns and be well trained, in the case that a despotic government should come to power,
“Little more can reasonably be aimed at with respect to the people at large than to have them properly armed and equipped; and in order to see that this be not neglected, it will be necessary to assemble them once or twice in the course of a year.” -Alexander Hamilton, Federalist #29
Hamilton went on to say that these militias should not only be autonomous of the federal government and be comprised of the citizenry but should be equipped with weapons of war that are equal to the federal "regular" army.
“This will not only lessen the call for military establishments; but if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude, that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens little if at all inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their fellow citizens.” -Alexander Hamilton Federalist #29
Again Madison concurred in Federalist #46.
"It may well be doubted whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops." -James Madison, Federalist #46
Clearly, the second amendment was not intended merely to allow for hunting, as some have suggested. Furthermore, it should be understood that the right of the common citizen to bear arms of the level of "weapons of war" was not simply a proposition by two lunatics (Madison and Hamilton), several other founders agreed.
Thomas Jefferson, who has also written on the subject, was one of many founders who agreed that the right to bear arms was important to ensuring liberty.
“the constitutions of most of our states assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, (as in electing their functionaries executive and legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, both fact and law, in all judiciary cases in which any fact is involved) or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person; freedom of religion; freedom of property; and freedom of the press.” -Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright 1824
On June 23, 2021, in a disgraceful statement against the Second Amendment, President Biden said, “If you wanted or if you think you need to have weapons to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons. The point is that there has always been the ability to limit — rationally limit the type of weapon that can be owned and who can own it.”
This statement is diametrically opposed to what the founders of this country believed. Furthermore, It shows that Biden neither respects the citizen of the United States nor does he honor the Constitution he vowed to uphold. His attitude is that of the despots whom the founders warned us about.
Here we have James Madison expressing the exact opposite view than what Joe Biden vomited from his mouth.
"Let us not insult the free and gallant citizens of America with the suspicion that they would be less able to defend the rights of which they would be in actual possession, than the debased subjects of arbitrary power would be to rescue theirs from the hands of their oppressors. Let us rather no longer insult them with the supposition, that they can ever reduce themselves to the necessity of making the experiment, by a blind and tame submission to the long train of insidious measures, which must precede and produce it.
The argument under the present head may be put into a very concise form, which appears altogether conclusive. Either the mode in which the federal government is to be constructed will render it sufficiently dependent on the people, or it will not." - James Madison Federalist #46
If Mr. Biden is correct that the citizens would need F-15s and nuclear weapons, then according to the founder's intent at the time of the writing of the Second Amendment, the people are entitled to own those very weapons, and any Supreme Court ruling that contradicts this notion is unconstitutional.
Also, if Biden truly believed that it would take F-15s and nuclear weapons to take on an army as powerful as the US military, why would he refuse to equip Ukraine with those types of weapons to fight the Russian army which is, at least, nearly as powerful as the US military? Nine billion dollars seems to be a rather hefty price to spend on Ukraine if you do not really believe it will improve the likelihood of victory.
But I digress.
A common tactic of the haters of the second amendment is to try to appeal to the ignorance of the masses. When there is a mass shooting, the left-leaning whackos quickly try to convince anyone who will listen that the crime was committed by a white supremacist wielding an AR-15. However, this is rarely the case.
Here are some of the more recent cases of mass shootings of note.
On April 3, 2022, there was a mass shooting in downtown Sacramento, California where over 100 rounds were fired, six people were killed, and 12 others were injured. Here it ends up that all of the weapons were handguns, there were at least 5 shooters, and it stemmed from a feud between the Crips and Bloods gangs. It would be safe to assume, in this case, that there was already some shady criminal activity in play, including possession of stolen firearms.
On April 12, 2022, Frank R. James fired 33 rounds using a Glock 9mm handgun, in a New York subway, wounding 10 while 19 others were also injured in the chaos. It ends up that Mr. James was a black man who spewed racism regularly from his social media account.
On April 16, 2022, 15 people were injured during what appears to be gang activity in a South Carolina Mall. Three males, Jewayne M. Price, Marquise Love Robinson, and Amari Sincere Jamal Smith, all black, were arrested. Again, handguns were used.
AR-15s are not weapons of war. They do not have an automatic fire setting like the M-16s which they look like. They look scary but they are semi-automatic weapons of small to medium caliber, just like the handguns that were used in the aforementioned cases.
Are guns the only way for evil people to inflict mass casualties?
On November 21, 2021, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Darrell E. Brooks purposefully plowed an SUV into a Christmas parade, killing 6 people and injuring 62 others. That is far more damage than any mass shooting to date. There are other incidents like this worldwide, including in countries that forbid or strictly limit the ownership of guns. If bad people want to kill, they will find a way.
Coincidentally, the Waukesha attacker was not white, either.
All the cases of mass casualties that I have mentioned above were horrifically tragic, as all are. However, they are not the fault of guns. They are the fault of very sick individuals.
It is absurd that the Left-winged members of the Supreme Court should rule for any limitations on gun rights. Their jobs are not to decide if they like what is in the Constitution. Their jobs are to rule if a case adheres to what the founders intended by the laws that they ratified.
Guns don't kill people. People kill people. If you want to get real causation for the uptick in mass shootings, it is time to compile statistics on the number of mass shooters who are on anti-depressants and benzos. Mental illness combined with overmedication is certainly at play here. Gang activity is also a huge problem that needs to be dealt with. Gun crimes are committed by criminals and they need to bear the responsibility for their actions, not the law-abiding gun owner.
The Second Amendment was intended to arm the citizens for self-defense and defense against the rise of a despotic government. The founders actually believed it was the duty of the citizens to belong to militias that are autonomous of the federal government. I believe it is time to get back to that kind of thinking.
Publius