The English and Colonial Roots of the U.S. Bill of Rights
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/bor/roots-chart/
To understand the 2nd amendment issue one has to go back. Historical context is really important. This is an interactive of that history. The first 10 amendments passed first congress over 200 years ago. It guarantees our freedoms.
The 2nd amendment, our right to bear arms and a well regulated militia. It guarantees the individual right to protect ourselves, and the right to protect against the tyranny of government.
IMO- it is the oversimplification of gun control and gun violence issues and solutions that has turned this guaranteed right into a hyper-politicized party issue. It's much more complex than no guns, vs more guns.
Heres What You Need To Know About The Weapons Of War Used In Mass Shootings
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/section/politics
"Mass shooters are well aware that assault-style rifles are easy to obtain and capable of causing enormous casualties." A short primer on the complex history of assault weapons - successes and failures in legislation. In so many ways that horse left the barn a long time ago. An assault weapon has become the individual defense as well. We saw this play out in the Texas church massacre.
The NRA Wasn't Always Against Gun Restrictions
https://www.npr.org/2017/10/10/556578593/the-nra-wasnt-always-against-gun-restrictions
"The NRA has anchored the opposition in every major gun-related debate since it altered its main aim from marksmanship to hard-edged political activism. That change came 40 years ago and was related to other shifts in political sentiment, including the departure of Southern rural conservatives from the Democratic Party. All these helped elect the first presidential candidate to ever be endorsed by the NRA, Ronald Reagan."
The love of money elects our politicians. The shift to politics in the NRA is recent history. And now, it is one of the three major lobby influences in our politics with its system of grades, contributions, and endorsements for its elected constituency supporting a billion dollar market.
---
The rather sinister underbelly is really about money. It is not about taking anyone's right to bear arms away. But what is the flip side? Forcing everyone to bear arms? No teacher I know is equipped or has the desire to shepherd our children with a firearm strapped to their body. No hunter I know shoots game with an AR-15. No church, or synagogue, or mosque I know can afford trained armed guards for their security.
Our world in America changed forever after 911. And I do believe this was a major factor in letting the assault weapon ban expire in 2004. Since then, culturally and politically we have accelerated to a precipice where our answers cannot be found in laying blame at "the other". --And yet blame is hammered into our psyches from the top of our leadership to the street carnage inflicted on our children.
The terror, the loss, the heartbreak expressed in the aftermath by our youth in Parkland Florida pulls the curtain back on our humanity. Who do we fail if we do not rise with them? Each mass murder is an unspeakable tragedy; Sandy Hook broke by heart, but Parkland Florida is soul crushing.
