After eight years of promoting "Second Amendment remedies" by Republican governors and members of Congress and their media mouthpieces, and quoting Thomas Jefferson regarding "the tree of liberty" and "blood of patriots" by Tea Party ammosexuals, Republicans are now blaming Democrats for the sort of rhetoric that, they say, led to the shooting in D.C.
So someone took them up on those Second Amendment solutions. Someone who, given his history of violence, wouldn't have been granted a gun license if Democrats had their way. Someone who aimed his rifle to the right instead of the left, as opposed to what had been suggested during the Obama years. Who knew it'd be a "liberal?"
I hope Mr. Scalise will be okay. I've dealt with gunshot wounds like his; I infer the bullet entered his abdominal cavity through his pelvis, damaged his colon and tore through his iliac vein. That's a big one, and hard to control. I've seen people bleed to death from it. Sounds like he got good surgical care, but isn't out of the woods.
Probably not the time to mention his opposition to Obama's efforts at gun control.
Will anything change? I'm gonna say no. Fingers pointing in both directions before the smoke cleared from the field. I guess I'm among the pointers. Pointer-out, more like, I'd argue.
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Those who see the Second Amendment as our protection against a tyrannical government don't understand that not everyone defines tyranny the same way they do.
ReplyDeleteExactly! Whoda thunk?
ReplyDeleteAnd just who is the Government? Maybe, the President....all of Congress...the Supreme Court...or the VA Doctor or the guy I just dealt with at the Social Security Office? I am pretty sure these ignorant folks have no idea...nor do they care to think about it. They just want their guns....period. Kind of like the cereal ad from the 50's: "I want my Mapo!".
ReplyDeleteThe 2nd was about getting Virginia and Georgia to sign on to the Constitution. They wanted to protect their militias, (read slave patrols) that much like the Spartans, constantly terrorized and killed slaves suspected of rebellious ideas.
ReplyDeleteSoutherners were all about preventing slave rebellions; (there were many) so much so that, according to an English visitor, he was surprised that the people he met in the south always went about heavily armed.
Southerners feared that federal government anti-slave legislators would take control of the militias and allow the slaves to revolt.
Thus The Second amendment "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed, and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country...was drafted to soothe southern paranoia about losing their slaves.
They still lost their slaves; but to this day, we still hear about how "the Gummamint, gonna take r' guns an all."
There is no cure for stupidity!
EugeneInSanDiego
An afterthought: So, from the Southern point of view, the Second Amendment was seen as a measure to protect and prolong Southern Tyranny!
ReplyDeleteThe difference between a oppressed group and an entrenched tyranny depends on which way the guns are pointing!
EugeneInSanDiego
I'm working on a newspaper column that makes the point about slavery and the 2nd Amendment, Eugene.
ReplyDelete