I just heard one of the dumbest things I ever heard... so much so I can't believe someone actually said it... ON THE NEWS!
Dear goodness the gun debates in the US are lined with idiocy. "Ohh if the Jews or Africans who were brought to America had guns then the Holocaust and slavery would have never happened"
That's particularly ironic, since the Second Amendment was written for the benefit of the southern states' militias a.k.a. the slave patrols.
...You sure? The Constitution was written before slavery even became an issue in general politics. As in nearly a hundred years before. I thought the second amendment was written primarily to justify what the Independence movement was trying to accomplish: i.e, forming a militia to prevent hostile takeovers by the ruling government.
Uhm. Except,
no. The "militia" bit is in there because the American forces were entirely composed of local militia forces; they
were the closest thing the government (such that it was; it was closer to a large group of local and regional committees before and during the Revolutionary War) had to a standing army. They were never intended to guard against legitimate
U.S. government, but against the British and
their decidedly foreign armies. If you want the modern equivalent of those militias, look to the U.S. military, not to the groups of "shooting enthusiasts", secessionists, and paranoid nutjobs that hole up in rural states waiting for the gubbment to come pry their assault rifles from their cold, dead hands.