On 6/3/2021 1:07 PM, John Clark wrote:
On Thu, Jun 3, 2021 at 3:01 PM 'Brent Meeker' via Everything List
<[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
/> It's much more sensible to define "arms" in terms of function
than mechanical design. After all "arms" meant swords and pikes
and bows and arrows too. /
The function of arms is to kill people, a sword can do that, so can a
musket, and so can an H bomb.
/> Functionally, "arms" meant what a soldier carried...these days
an assault rifle. /
It doesn't say that anywherein the constitution,and these days a
soldier can have weapons other than assault rifles.
He can have a grenade. He can't have a machine gun...a machine gun is
assigned to a two man crew; same with a sniper rifle.
Anuclearbomb had been developed in the1950s that was small enough to
be carried by one man, it was called the W54 warhead and weighed 56
pounds and had the explosive force of 1000 tons of TNT. It was
supposed to be deployed as a sort of nuclear landmine. So does the
second amendment allow Walmarts to sell nuclear bombs next to the
shotguns in its stores?
Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM)
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_demolition_munition>
See what you did there. You tried for a reductio ad absurdum, by
missing the point ''Functionally, "arms" meant *what a soldier
carried*'' They had cannon and warships in 1787 too...but they weren't
called "arms".
/>The purpose of the 2nd Amendment was as a substitute for a
standing army the government would be able to call up men with
arms to form a militia. Being very suspicious of centralized
power, the founders wanted to make sure the government could not
forbid private arms.
/
After considering the events of January 6 it seems to me that the
founders would've been wiser to be suspicious of private armies.
I agree with that. But historically their attitude is understandable.
The militias were not defending the capital on that day they were
attacking it, and were part of the mindless fascist mob that beat
police with flag poles and defecated in the rotunda of that historic
building as Senators and Representatives feared for their lives while
they officially declared Joe Biden would be the next president.
Fortunately the mob's coup d'état attempt failed, no thanks to the
Second Amendment or to militias.
You can't have expected them to foresee that. And note that being armed
in that case meant clubs and bear spray.
Brent
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