The Second Amendment is a strange bit of writing. Nothing like it exists or has existed anywhere else in the world. "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
It sounds like words from Sinai, but they came from simple New England farmers and frontiersmen. We hear often about the Constitution but seldom about its creators and their biases.The Constitution was written mainly by Southerners who considered themselves American aristocrats. They were slave owners, living off the sweat of the chattels who died in their fields. They had no real desire to give freedom to all, and they had no hatred of kings; in fact, some wished to offer kingship to George Washington.
The Bill of Rights, however, was written mostly by Northerners who abhorred slavery and had forever severed themselves from the tyranny of Europe's monarchs. It was they who grabbed their rifles and muskets to stop the confiscation of guns and powder at Lexington and Concord. It was they who suffered severe and bloody losses in battle after battle while the South quibbled continually whether to back the North or England.
The Northerners demanded the Second Amendment because they realized that a gun in the hands of a farmer, or a shopkeeper, or street sweeper turned militiaman is the only real barrier to slavery and tyranny, either foreign or home-grown. They also realized that those who cry for gun control, standing armies and stronger government are either comfortable with becoming slaves or owning them.
The Second Amendment is the single fundamental human right that is essential to freedom. No other right can be guaranteed without it; indeed, no other right exists beyond the whim of government without it.
R. Scott Ormond
American Fork