Dear Conservatives,
So, there are a couple of disclaimers that I want to make before kicking off. First, I am not a lawyer. I haven’t studied the intricacies of legal matters nor the writings of our founding fathers in strict detail. I just want to express how I see things in a good faith effort to begin a dialog. Everyone is welcome to tell me where I’m wrong or where I’ve gone a bit overly Pollyanna in my thinking. Secondly, I will use the royal you when describing what I perceive as conservative behavior. To be up front, it is not all conservatives, but an alarming amount. So, today, I would like to stick my face in the beartrap known as the Second Amendment.
Let’s take a look at the Second Amendment first:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
In the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I feel the meaning of this provision comes into stark relief. Ukraine is desperate for fighters and are arming their citizenry to fight back the encroaching horde. While I wish that they never had to be put into that situation, the bravery and true patriotism gives me all the good feelings. They are a proud people, one that should be lauded.
This development got me thinking about how the USA is lucky; we have citizens that love their firearms and enjoy practicing with them. While it’s not a hobby I care to partake in, I get it. It can be fun to demolish a paper target, to bag a kill out in the field. Despite the statistics, some people feel safer being able to conceal carry.
Those statistics in that link, though, are what makes us liberals nervous. For those who did not click on the link, it shows that there are 35 criminal homicides with a firearm for every actual justifiable case of self defense. Liberals want to cut that down. We want to stop the gun violence. This is why there have been attempts at some forms of gun control, most of which go nowhere. It’s not that we want to disarm the people; we just want to disarm the murderers and those with a predilection towards unnecessary violence.
With that, let’s get to the crux of what I believe the founding fathers intended with the Second Amendment. It wasn’t so the people of the United States can threaten each other with violence, but so that the people are ready and able to step up and defend their homeland from invaders when needed. The definition of invaders is an another topic entirely, but I hope we can agree that folks attempting to seek asylum from their own violent place of origins are very different from a hostile invasion of a foreign power’s government.
It should be obvious that the framers of the Constitution did not include the Second Amendment so that randos can threaten their fellow countrymen just because we disagree on a contentious topic. The term “Second Amendment Solution” is not the witticism you think it is. Frankly, that shit scares the hell out of us and does you absolutely zero favors. It’s not “triggering” when you folks say stuff like that. Instead, those statements are an impolite way of telling us you cannot be trusted.
Additionally, one only need look at Shay’s Rebellion to see how the founding fathers felt about the idea that people are encouraged to take up arms against their own government instead of following the rules that should apply to everybody.
Here’s the thing, though. We want to trust you. If we were ever invaded, we want folks like you ready to fight, ready to instruct the unarmed if necessary. Yes, the United States has the greatest military in the world. Should the shit hit the fan, though, we cannot expect them to be everywhere. This is why I believe the right to bear arms was enshrined in the Constitution. It is meant to protect the republic, not destroy it when one interior faction doesn’t get their way.
If you don’t get your way, feel free to vote. Feel free to protest. Do not feel free to respond with violence. We’re in this together and you are as valuable to us liberals as liberal programs are valuable to you. However, we also need to come together as a people to raise each other up. We will disagree. We will argue. But we should not threaten to murder each other, for f--k’s sake.
To reiterate, most liberals have no real interest in coming for your guns, but you have got to stop abusing the Second Amendment, twisting it into an excuse to attack your countrymen. Let’s be adults, here, so that we can be prepared on the off chance that we actually need to defend our homeland.
I hope this makes sense. My wheelhouse is nerdery, not politics. I also realize that I brushed past some topics that tie into the divide we currently have as a nation. In the unlikely event that a dialog has been started from this, I would be happy to expand on other topics.
In the meantime, I hope that we can start talking to each other without threats and insults.
Cheers,
Goatous