ESSAY
Information regarding the second
amendment of the US Constitution-click
America, as an agricultural country in the times of
the Revolutionary war, and thereafter until the expansion of the country and
the Manifest destiny that called for men, women, children to go beyond the
borders of civilization, had a pioneer mentality. Confronting Indian tribes,
wild animals and dangerous men required bearing arms. In an age of colonialism
and wars on the Frontier such as the Indian wars, wars against France and Great
Britain at a time when the forests, mountains and trails west were wild,
unknown and threatening it is understandable that protecting oneself was
necessary. Even if we watch early films from the early 1900s till the 1960s we
see the evolution of civilization in the sense that in the beginning
townspeople carried guns until true law and order was established and in films
we started to see that guns were no longer tolerated by regular townsfolk who
slowly stopped carrying guns. Community, town building, developing societies
brought about change. The fathers of the nation having lived in an age when fighting
a war against Great Britain meant that if they had been caught they might have
been executed for treason fully understood the need for citizenry support; every man bring your rifle and defend your
desire to be free of Great Britain and build an American nation where one can
practice their own beliefs, have independence to build the life they want where
they want. It is all understood through the lens of that time and carrying
the fear of the Revolutionary war with them and the fact that America was a
weak and poor nation in its beginning, the threat of world powers was always
real so of course, as a nation, men should have the right to bear arms, protect
their families, their homes and their new nation.
I find it difficult to believe that the Founders such
as Jefferson, Adams, Washington and so many others; men who were religious or
at least observing and practicing in their beliefs envisioned a world where an
ex student would walk into a classroom and murder 17 people within 6 minutes.
The desire to create an educational society was a major component of America’s
founding. Education was central to the development of America. From philosophical,
intellectual, mental, religious and practical perspectives, I cannot personally
believe that such great men as the Founders who were well educated, learned of
philosophy and what the Greeks, the French, the Romans had thought and how they
had understood the world, would have ever produced a constitutional amendment that
could have endangered America’s youth. They defined the need for arms in the
case that if America were to be threatened for the populace to help whatever
military was in place to defend the nation. It was already understood that
weapons were needed for self-protection and for hunting or for sport BUT other
than in times of wars or the racial conflict between settlers and Native
Americans, have you ever read of stories even in those days of children being slaughtered
or of constant massacres taking place across the nation where so many innocent people
were murdered? Not even in the days and times when American faced such great
danger did our youth or schools feel as threatened as they do now.
The 20th and 21st century phenomena
of mass murder using military type weapons by many people who are either
afflicted with emotional or mental illnesses is NOT something envisioned by the
Founders. They were such wise people as to think of the information and
concepts that make up the great documents that American life is guided by; the
Constitution, The Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence. Do you
really think they were thinking that all Americans should have guns for any reason
and to use them against other Americans and for there to be almost no
regulations or laws that allows for social responsible control mechanisms in
place? Would men who created those documents and who created a system of democracy
and government truly write a law or add an amendment that would be defined and
interpreted as it has been in modern times? I do not think so. I do not think
that the manner of evolution of American society towards gun ownership could possibly
have been a part of the philosophy or beliefs of the men that created those
documents. They would have never envisioned the NRA and the positions that
organization takes in terms of gun usage in the USA. At the core of those great
Americans in the 1700s and 1800s was the building up of a society that would
one day be great, be global, be friends with other nations, be a leader. Within
those aims, there is no place for random killings, gun laws so loose and
dangerous as to threaten the lives of the young. Those men also understood the
economics of the times back then and envisioned what may be necessary for
America to grow economically and militarily strong. They knew what great
nations did to become world powers. They had Rome, Greece, France and Great
Britain as role models. They knew what was necessary. They knew the role a
military would have to play. Jefferson knew that to expand and grow going west
was necessary which is why Lewis and Clark and the opening of the west occurred.
They never ever dreamed how the use of weapons would
evolve as we have seen in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Even after the Wild Wild West and the Roaring Twenties, the mobs and gangsters
of the early 1900s till the 1970s and all of the challenges and uncontrolled
growth of a nation destined to be great, did any of the Founders think that any
person could buy a gun anywhere and use it freely to kill and maim and destroy
the lives of boys and girls, teachers and administrators in America’s classrooms.
There needs to be change. Change is good because it
comes about after a national discussion of the challenges that face a nation.
After the Depression, FDR created change. Regardless of how you may define the
outcome of that change, change was needed, and it saved the lives of many
Americans. In an age of great corruption, of graft and buying political power,
age of where racism still lives, of greed and anger, of world issues that are
dangerous, of competition and global issues endangering the planet, only change
can change the course we are on. Remember that greed and corruption of the post-Civil
war years, the union strikes and riots, the Depression and gangsters like
Capone and the Mafia families, the many wars and the evolutionary and trans-formative 1960s and 1970s and even throughout all of that history we did
not experience the unreal danger of such uncontrolled and unregulated gun usage
in America as we do in current times. Politicians that take NRA money, that do
nothing to change the laws to protect Americans, that put their careers and
their wallets first are complicit in the murders that take place. If you are
the driver of a getaway car during a bank robbery and someone is killed, and
you are caught, you go to jail as if you had participated in the crime and are
guilty just like the murderer. Even if you do not pull the trigger it does not
mean you are not responsible. Politicians that refuse to protect their citizens
should be held accountable and be responsible for the crimes that could possibly
be stopped or lessened if preventive gun laws were in place. If those
politicians do not act, do not change laws, do not take a stand against the
NRA, continue to take NRA money and do not care about the people they are sworn
to protect then they should be held responsible and taken to court just like
any other criminal that participated in the crime.
VOTE THEM OUT OF OFFICE. Make politicians pay the price
that any other citizen would have to pay. Stop this elitist social class that
thinks they are above the law. Sadly, America has gone backward. Those that
think fewer regulations that allows for greater wealth will in time live to
regret their decisions. Their grandchildren will pay the price for reduced
regulations when global warming starts to erode land, when pollution starts to
kill the young and the elderly, when land is destroyed and no longer usable,
when racists start developing a culture that had eventually led to World War
Two. The world is logical, and you cannot run from logic. What you know is good
for you in the short run but only because of money, will eventually destroy you
in the long run. That is how life and logic work no matter what you say or
think, you cannot change it. And if by then, the rest of the world has passed
America by, you will then understand that the AGE OF Trump; is America’s
downfall.
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