Recently the Howard County police confiscated illegally purchased weapons from a resident. Above is a picture of the range of illegally owned guns confiscated. This case shows where our Country is as a result of the National Rifle Association's successful campaign to have the right to bear arms mentioned in the Second Amendment to mean the right to become a heavily armed private citizen. This misinterpretation of the Constitution is historically incorrect. To understand the historical context in which the Constitution was written you only have to look at how guns were treated in Colonial America.
In colonial times, America was a very different place. The Country was still young and the laws were still forming. One aspect that many people may not know was different during this time was the gun laws. While many people today may imagine that guns were easily available and unrestricted, the reality was that there were many gun restrictions in colonial times. One common misconception is that the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees the right to bear arms, meant that everyone was allowed to have a gun without restriction. However, this is not the case. In the early days of the country, gun ownership was actually tightly controlled. One of the main reasons for this was that guns were expensive and hard to come by. Flints were not always available, and replacement parts were scarce. Manufactured guns were more expensive than most settlers could afford. As a result, gun ownership was mainly limited to the wealthy and to the colonists who were members of militia organizations. Another reason that guns were restricted was that they were seen as dangerous. In colonial times, there were no police forces and very limited means of protecting oneself. Because of this, lawmakers were concerned that people would use guns recklessly or for vigilante justice.
Overall, gun ownership in colonial times was limited to certain individuals and groups, and there were many restrictions in place to control the use of guns.
2 comments:
This person violated the law in buying these weapons, period. It's got nothing to do with the NRA or any other organization. An individual choose to do something they KNEW was illegal, but did it anyhow.
No matter how many laws we make about anything, some people choose to ignore them. Me?
I'm grateful the police found this criminal and stopped him before something worse happened.
I legally own far more guns than this person. I also own 6 cars for two drivers. My point? We acquire the things we like because we like them and we can.
Nice to see a comment. The NRA was the driving force for getting Congress and the courts to interpret the 2nd Amendment to give the general public the right to own guns with few restrictions. This has led to our population to be one of the most heavily armed populations in the world. Our homicide and suicide rate using guns is just something we are supposed to tolerate. For some of us guns are just implements that have one main purpose--to injure and kill. Having a lot of guns seems to be a strange and destructive fetish to me.
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