Thom Hartmann — The Second Amendment Was Ratified to Preserve Slavery

The real reason the Second Amendment was ratified, and why it says "State" instead of "Country" (the framers knew the difference -- see the 10th Amendment), was to preserve the slave patrol militias in the southern states, which was necessary to get Virginia's vote. Founders Patrick Henry, George Mason and James Madison were totally clear on that... and we all should be too.…

Hartmann delves into the history and historical documents.

Truthout | News Analysis (5 January 2013)
The Second Amendment Was Ratified to Preserve Slavery
Thom Hartmann

See also

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad [R] said Monday that he doesn't agree with the decision by U.S. Rep. Steve King [R] to display a Confederate flag on his congressional office desk.

Sioux City television station KCAU ran a Thursday news report on a bill that King supports. The footage showed King's desk with several flags, including a Confederate flag, which southern states used during the Civil War.

The flag has been a source of pride for some Southerners and others, which King has said he understands. However, increasingly such flags have been pulled out of Southern-state public displays as some contend the flags symbolize bigotry in the aftermath of the war that gave African-Americans freedom from slavery.

King, a Republican from Kiron, Iowa, is a 14-year officeholder. It is not known how long the flag has been on his desk, amid others that include a U.S. flag and one with the phrase "Don't Tread On Me."

“I don’t agree with that. I guess that’s his decision," Branstad said about the desk flag during his Monday news conference. “People have a right to display whatever they want to, but I’m proud to say that (Iowa was) on the side of the Union and we won the war."Gov. Branstad criticizes Steve King's Confederate desk flag

Sioux City Journal

Gov. Branstad criticizes Steve King's Confederate desk flag

Bret Hayworth

Simon Maloy — Ted Cruz’s frightening gun fanaticism: When a presidential contender encourages armed insurrection

As incredible as it sounds, there’s an argument going on right now between two Republican senators (and, potentially, two Republican candidates for the presidency) over whether the American citizenry should be ready to fight a war against the federal government. The two senators in question are Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, and they can’t seem to agree whether the Second Amendment serves as bulwark against government “tyranny.”

It all started with a fundraising email Cruz sent making the case that “The 2nd Amendment to the Constitution isn’t for just protecting hunting rights, and it’s not only to safeguard your right to target practice. It is a Constitutional right to protect your children, your family, your home, our lives, and to serve as the ultimate check against governmental tyranny — for the protection of liberty.” TPM’s Sahil Kapur asked Graham what he thought of his Texan colleague’s view of the Second Amendment, and the South Carolina senator was not impressed. He even invoked the Civil War, which should make Cruz’s people plenty upset. “Well, we tried that once in South Carolina,” Graham said. “I wouldn’t go down that road again.”

This view of gun rights that casts personal firearm ownership as a check on the abuses of government doesn’t make a great deal of practical sense, and it betrays a lack of faith in our democratic institutions. But it’s become increasingly popular among high-level Republican officials who quite literally scare up votes by telling voters they’re right to keep their Glocks cocked just in case the feds come for them. Iowa’s new Republican senator Joni Ernst famously remarked that she supports the right to carry firearms to defend against “the government, should they decide that my rights are no longer important.”

The obvious question raised by statements like those from Cruz and Ernst is: when does the shooting start? What is the minimum threshold for government “tyranny” that justifies an armed response from the citizenry? In 2014, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy was ready to start a shooting war with the feds to defend his illegal grazing practices, and he garnered the support of top-level Republican officials (they only abandoned him after he started wondering aloud whether black people would be better off as slaves).

It’s an important question because Republicans and conservatives – Ted Cruz included – tend to throw around terms like “tyranny” sort of haphazardly when criticizing policies and politicians they disagree with.…

Off the deep end. Feel like your living in a world gone mad?

Salon
Ted Cruz’s frightening gun fanaticism: When a presidential contender encourages armed insurrection
Simon Maloy

Thom Hartmann — The Second Amendment was Ratified to Preserve Slavery

The real reason the Second Amendment was ratified, and why it says "State" instead of "Country" (the Framers knew the difference - see the 10th Amendment), was to preserve the slave patrol militias in the southern states, which was necessary to get Virginia's vote. Founders Patrick Henry, George Mason, and James Madison were totally clear on that . . . and we all should be too.

In the beginning, there were the militias. In the South, they were also called the "slave patrols," and they were regulated by the states.

In Georgia, for example, a generation before the American Revolution, laws were passed in 1755 and 1757 that required all plantation owners or their male white employees to be members of the Georgia Militia, and for those armed militia members to make monthly inspections of the quarters of all slaves in the state. The law defined which counties had which armed militias and even required armed militia members to keep a keen eye out for slaves who may be planning uprisings.…

The Smirking Chimp
The Second Amendment was Ratified to Preserve Slavery
Thom Hartmann

David Edwards — Kansas official ready to use ’2nd Amendment’ against ‘illegal alien’ rally

Kansas official ready to use ’2nd Amendment’ against ‘illegal alien’ rally (via Raw Story )

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said he was prepared to use deadly force over the weekend after hundreds “illegal aliens” paid a visit to his home to rally for immigration reform. According to Sunflower Community Action, about 300 activists traveled to Kobach’s home after holding a prayer…

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Mike Kimel — The Problem with the Second Amendment

Must read (short). Fits right into William Hogeland's work as well. What the Founding Fathers really intended with the Second Amendment.

Good comments, too, wrt the Second Amendment, James Madison, and the slave states.

The Second Amendment was designed to give the elite an additional and highly coercive measure of control over populist resistance and slave revolt.

The contemporary spin has no basis in fact or law wrt to the founding of the United States and its early development. It's a modern fiction that serves the arms industry, which is profiting handsomely by arming America domestically.

Angry Bear
The Problem with the Second Amendment

Mike Kimel | Principal Consultant at Analytic Economics