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Originally Posted by TarJak
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A good article. I liked the story of Huey Newton and the police. It's what America is about.
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In particular this on the Founding Father's gun controls of the time:
I'd say that in any discussion of what the Founding Fathers intended with the second amendment, this regulation gives a very clear indication. It's not all about rights and no regulation.
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I do have to disagree here. The article cites the denial of slaves as a form of gun control. That's a very limited viewpoint. They were slaves, and as such were denied
all human rights. The ownership of weapons for defense was still considered a right for all citizens. Slaves weren't considered citizens, as was shown by the Supreme Court's decision in the Dred Scott case. Dred Scott petitioned the court for his freedom, since his late owner had lived in several states where slavery was outlawed. Rather than decide the case on its own merits the court said that Scott had no right to petition the court at all, since as a slave he wasn't a citizen.
So the Founders didn't have a gun-control law denying a certain segment of the population what they considered a basic right. They denied a certain segment of the population access to
all basic human rights, on the principle that they weren't citizens. Kind of like the whole Guantanamo thing. Gun ownership was indeed considered a right that citizens could enjoy.
As for a law requiring all male citizens of militia age to own a gun? You can argue that that constitues gun control, but I doubt you'll get much joy from the Brady group.