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In reply to the discussion: raise your hand if you support protesting kavenaugh and his SC buddies everywhere they go [View all]azureblue
(2,575 posts)Doesn't any gun nut even learn US history? Jeez. OK here we go again --
Back in those days, each town had a group of people who defended the town against marauders, highway men, angry Indians, etc. Sometimes the group was financed by somebody with money to pay for the weapons, gun powder, lead, etc.And to train them hopefully. Often not, just a bunch of guys who own muskets and pistols, who had no military training at all.
Then comes the America Revolutionary War, and Washington needed an army. Stay with me here, this can get detailed. So the volunteers for the army were the various "militias". Oops. They weren't standardized at all, often not even using the same caliber musket balls, much less the same make of musket. And many not trained at all in warfare. So, the first battles, a bunch of the rag tag army turned tail and ran. The rest couldn't even share shot in the heat of battle, so they got their butts kicked as the well organized British army and their mercenaries ran over them like a lawnmower. So the whole army had to be trained and weapons standardized. Tales of Valley Forge, etc. So (with the help of the French at Yorktown) Independence was won.
War over, everybody goes home, a Constitution was begun. Whoops, the broke new country can't afford an army big enough to defend the new states. Don't forget, it took weeks to get from place to place. So the solution was to keep the Army, and supplement it with militias trained, with the same weaponry, and ready to be called up if needed. See "well Regulated". Anything starting to come into focus now? So the 2nd was written to more or less codify the readiness of the militias and to make sure they had sufficient weaponry, in case they should be called to action.
And that is what the 2nd amendment was written for - essentially the citizen soldier. Of course, once communication improved, roads were built, and the new country grew, the need for militias diminished, and the intent of the 2nd amendment fell into history.. Except for the gun nuts, who probably could pass a 6th grade physical, much less be able to stand fast when being shot at..
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