We can think of no more perversely false yet, popularly successful, item of propaganda than the bold assertion that the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution, grants to every American citizen, the personal right to own a gun. We are dismayed to observe that some of those who have vociferously stated their opposition to unregulated ownership of these death dealing instruments, appear to tacitly accede to the possibility that the Second Amendment is, conceivably, a statement of the right of the individual citizen to own guns; it is not.
It is our assumption, that many members of the gun lobby, are aware that the general assertion is untrue, but for self-serving reasons of political power and profit, cynically claim otherwise. The fraudulent propaganda program of the NRA, has additionally and irresponsibly, been extended to a demonstration of faux outrage, at the mere suggestion of reasonable gun regulation.
We would discourage the ceding of any veracity, whatsoever, to the false propaganda, disseminated daily, by the gun lobby [whom, we charge with, effectively, being accessories in the many mass shootings of late]. Its false and irresponsible assertion of a purported right, of all American citizens, to own deadly weapons, is an intentionally deceitful misreading of the meaning, historical context and genuine intention of the Second Amendment. To reiterate, it is our belief, that such publicized, tactical misreading of the Second Amendment and the mendacity of the gun lobby, is an intentional (and sadly, successful) deception, strategically, practiced upon the public.
Anyone who takes the modest time required, to cursorily, review the American history at the time of the addition of the Second Amendment to the Constitution, will be made especially aware, of the falsity of the gun lobby’s “snake-oil,” widely disseminated, version of the truthful history and the Amendment’s content and purpose. We choose, in our recitation of the accurate history and purpose, of said Amendment, to refer to the explanation of the learned, Supreme Court Justice, John Paul Stevens:
“The Second Amendment was adopted out of the specific concern, that a standing National Army might pose a threat to the security of the separate States” and so, permitted the maintenance by each State, of an “armed Militia” (the “People,”) to be independent and separate from the Federal Army.
Any tactically strained morphing of the essence and accurate intention of the Second Amendment, into an outlandish declaration of the right of all citizens to own weapons is, demonstrably and empirically, false. The subject of the individual citizen, was entirely irrelevant to the Amendment. In truth, there is a total absence of any constitutional language, whatsoever, (fairly and rationally read), to the effect that “citizens” have any right to possess armaments.
It would not be useful, here, to attempt to enumerate the plethora of horrific mass shootings, in parks, schools, churches, synagogues, parking lots and other bloody venues, at which innocent people were gunned down (a great many, being young children), by deranged people, intoxicated with the existential properties of guns. These murderous incidents have been so frequent, that one well known media personality has remarked: “such reports have gone from the front page of newspapers, to the third.”
As stated, we find it especially frustrating, that, the truth that there is no constitutional right to own weapons, by virtue of the Second Amendment, is, conceivably, understood by all contending sides of the controversy, as any literate person can easily discover. Yet, the gun lobby’s propaganda, is so successful, that many anti-gun citizens seem to tolerate the intentional misreading and misapprehension of the Amendment and, by necessity, are relegated to offer other (usually meritorious) objections to the general ownership of such death-dealing instruments. One such cogent argument is the absence of any necessity, in any event, for a civilian to own automatic weapons which are truly, instruments of mass destruction and overkill. It would be absurd for people who would seek to rationalize their improper ownership of such wholesale death dealing weapons, as self-protection. The possession of such weapons can only be the delight of a paranoid fantasy, in the excited nocturnal, dreams of a psychopath.
The gun lobby, and its sycophants, not unlike the big industrial polluters of the atmosphere, who unmistakably, and psychopathically, appear to value short term profits, above human life.
In our empirical experience, it is the law abiding citizen who is truly in need of protection, from the imminent danger of gun owners, who (have been induced to) believe that they are constitutionally entitled to, and required to own, death dealing weapons, for their personal protection.
-p.
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