TITLE: Was the National Rifle Association Started to Drive Out the KKK? (2013)
AUTHOR: Warren Throckmorton
URL: http://wthrockmorton.com/2013/01/was-the-national-rifle-association-started-to-drive-out-the-kkk/
NOTES: Debunks claims that NRA started to help Southern Blacks vs. KKK. Was actually started by Northern military officers to address poor marksmanship
TWEETS: https://twitter.com/hospiceman/status/304689704916365312
TITLE: So you think you know the Second Amendment (2012)
SOURCE: The New Yorker
AUTHOR: Jeffrey Toobin
URL: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/12/jeffrey-toobin-second-amendment.html
WEB STATS: http://nyr.kr/YeFpsS+
NOTES:
(1) The Second Amendment is not only a matter of law, but a matter of politics. Conservatives put originalism aside to alter a long-held legal interpretation of the 2nd Amendment. (2) The text of the amendment is divided into two clauses and is, as a whole, ungrammatical. (3) Courts have found that the 1st part, the “militia clause,” trumps the 2nd part, the “bear arms” clause. As a result, the 2nd Amendment conferred on state militias a right to bear arms; it did not give individuals a right to own or carry a weapon. This changed after a post-coup d’état-NRA came into the picture in 1977. A novel interpretation of the 2nd Amendment was then sought, one that gave individuals, not just militias, the right to bear arms. An uphill battle was fought and, eventually, won, but not without brute political force. It wasn’t until the 2008 case of District of Columbia v. Heller that the Supreme Court fully embraced the individual-rights view of the Second Amendment.
TITLE: ON GUN REGISTRATION, THE NRA, ADOLF HITLER, & NAZI GUN LAWS (2004)
SOURCE: University of Chicago Law School
AUTHOR(S): Bernard E. Harcourt
LINK: http://www.law.uchicago.edu/files/files/67-harcourt.pdf
BITLY STATS: http://bit.ly/ZzXuNX+
RESEARCH QUESTION: Does Nazi Germany provide evidence that gun registration leads to loss of rights, oppression, etc.?
FINDINGS: Many Americans have internalized belief despite lack of evidence. Gun laws in Germany at the time were fluid & complex. Hitler first expanded rights, then restricted rights of CERTAIN CLASSES of citizens, which is not a fair comparison to USA, which seeks to regulate ALL CLASSES of citizens equally. Gun lobby uses comparisons to Nazi Germany, however, they fail logically in 3 ways:
(1). Comparing white, male, protestant gun owners in USA to Jews of 1930s Germany is not equivalent.
(2). NRA says “guns don’t kill, people kill”, which means “guns are things, things don’t do damage.” BUT they use Nazi Germany analogy to oppose gun registration, saying “gun registration will take away rights”. However, “gun registration” is a “thing”, not a person, therefore incapable of this via their logic. So, either “things DO kill” OR “gun registration is not bad”.
(3). Nazi goal was FIRST to oppress Jews. THEN they used legal (& extralegal) methods to make it happen. Not the other way around. That is, Oppression came before Disarming Jews.
England & USA have many historical “gun registration” laws, back to 1600s, yet both became/are arguably freest nations in world. Gun registration laws in USA have survived several constitutional/legal challenges. Fear of gun registration is a cultural phenomena- a culture war.
NOTES: Some history of Colonial American & British gun control laws. There were many.
TWEETS: https://twitter.com/hospiceman/status/304670442571051008
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