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Second Amendment is Slave Militia Support
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[states' rights]), 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.
"The Second Amendment was Ratified to Preserve Slavery" by Thom Hartmann, Truthout 1/15/13
"In the beginning, there were the militias. In the South, they were also called the "slave patrols," and they were regulated by the states. "
"By the time the Constitution was ratified, hundreds of substantial slave uprisings had occurred across the South. Blacks outnumbered whites in large areas, and the state militias were used to both prevent and to put down slave uprisings. As Dr. Bogus points out, slavery can only exist in the context of a police state, and the enforcement of that police state was the explicit job of the militias."
"If the anti-slavery folks in the North had figured out a way to disband - or even move out of the state - those southern militias, the police state of the South would collapse. And, similarly, if the North were to invite into military service the slaves of the South, then they could be emancipated, which would collapse the institution of slavery, and the southern economic and social systems, altogether."
"Their main concern was that Article 1, Section 8 of the newly-proposed Constitution, which gave the federal government the power to raise and supervise a militia, could also allow that federal militia to subsume their state militias and change them from slavery-enforcing institutions into something that could even, one day, free the slaves. "
"This was not an imagined threat. Famously, 12 years earlier, during the lead-up to the Revolutionary War, Lord Dunsmore offered freedom to slaves who could escape and join his forces. "Liberty to Slaves" was stitched onto their jacket pocket flaps. During the War, British General Henry Clinton extended the practice in 1779. And numerous freed slaves served in General Washington's army."
From reposter: Americans are armed to the teeth, with 45% of Americans owning guns. They claim this is to form militias. Where are the militias to stop crime, stop rape, stop drones, stop political frame-ups? The answer is nowhere because gun owning is instead of mass organizing, in particular, labor organizing. Owning a piece of cold steel that can kill someone is the sick American mind's rugged individualist response to all problems, increasing all problems, and solving absolutely no problems. Get rid of all your guns, real and toy, civilian, military, police and prison guard NOW!