Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: The need for the 2nd amendment
Author: Mike Murry Posted: 5/6/1999; 10:05:00 AM Topic: scriptingNews outline for 5/4/99 Msg #: 5740 (In response to 5731) Prev/Next: 5739 / 5741
Being a non-american, I've never really figured out this 2nd amendment thing about having weapons to protect oneself from the government. Maybe someone here can enlighten me on the reasons for it, or at least give me an american perspective.This goes back to the days when we were English Colonies. We wanted to run things our own way and not be under English rule. The way we did that was by ordinary citizens taking up arms to fight the English. So the idea is be ready if something like this happens again with our government.
I can't believe that the americans fear a coup de etat (sp?) and the abolishment of democracy in the USA within the nect couple of decades (if not centuries) so why the need for weapons?
Some would say, myself included, that a coup d'etat did take place in the US when President Kennedy was assasinated in 1963. Americans as a whole are not as interested in democracy as you might think. I'm talking mob mentality here, not individually. Groups are more likely to take the law into their own hands, and don't really care about things like due process. The only ones who truly care about democracy are the politicians because it keeps them in positions of power.
I know I may have come off a little harsh, but look at the way things really are in the US. Hardly anyone votes, yet everyone is always complaining about the government. Then those CNN polls concerning violence and TV/Games/Internet. Peoples reaction is that the government should start banning or putting restrictions on these things when there is no proof that there is any connection between them and what happened in Littleton. As soon as you starting pointing the finger at guns (which I believe has the same cause/effect relationship to Littleton as TV/Games/Internet) you have to deal with a very powerful political organization (the NRA) which always brings up the 2nd Amendment.
So I would say that most people don't really care about the 2nd Amendment.
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