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Navigator,
I respectfully disagree with your analysis of the meaning of the 2nd Amendment. You’ve listened to the NRA’s bass-akwards retention for so long, you come to believe them. They’re totally LYING about it. Have you ever read the 2nd Amendment, all the way through, pausing where the commas are, so to understand the inflections and emphasis of the phrases? Also, you need a good understanding of how English was spoken and written in the mid 1700’s. From my experiences on the OPP, most of you 2nd Amendment adherents don’t take that part of history into account. Some of the English spoken today is different from some of the English of the 1700’s. And, the spoken English to the 1700’s is different than the English of Shakespeare’s time. Just look at how we’ve dropped “thee’s and thou’s,” and no longer use “f” for an “s.”
It goes to prove that words, their meanings, sentence structure, punctuation, and inflections, change over time as language changes to keep-up with the changing society. As an example, only 100 years ago, the word “gay” meant that someone was “happy,” not homosexual, or more specifically, a homosexual male (as opposed to a homosexual female who’s called a “lesbian”).
Take a couple of more changes. 1) In the course of just a decade (10 years), the word “can” changed meanings. In the slang of the 1940s, "can" referred to a jail or prison. In the slang of the 1950s, the meaning shifted to mean a toilet or bathroom.
2) Say you lived from the 1700’s and into the late 1800’s. While out hunting with your long gun (shotgun, rifle or musket) and you were asked as to the location of your “tampon,” what would be your first thought? Would you, immediately know your tampon was the short, wooden plug you put down the barrel of your long gun to keep any rain out? Or, would you immediately think of a feminine hygiene product?
So, as to the interpretation of the 2nd Amendment, unless you’re very familiar with the way English was spoken and written, around the time the Constitution was written, your understanding of its words and meanings could be fairly different than what Mr. Madison wrote and what the meanings of his words and sentences. The NRA recognizes that most people don’t realize there are differences in the language. So, they read the 2nd Amendment and try to convince people the 2nd Amendment’s wording reflects words used today. It doesn’t.
When was the last time you diagrammed a sentence in English class? I have 2 granddaughters who live nearby. One attends junior high school and the other is a sophomore in high school. School started here, August 1. When I last spoke to them about their classes, I included inquiring about their English class. Both said that English was their most boring class. When I asked them if they had ever been taught how to diagrams sentences, both said, “What’s diagraming sentences?” When I was in grade school, we were taught sentence diagramming in the 7th, 9th and 11th grades. Of course, that was in the mid to late 60’s. Times have changed and schools no longer put as much emphasis on sentence structure, let alone the sentence structure of older English composition.
Like I said, the NRA is betting on yours and many other’s ignorance of the differences between English composition of the 1700’s and now. The interpretation you used as a rebuttal of my post proves my point. If you were to read the 2nd Amendment as it was written and meant to be understood, you'd see your mistakes in understanding.
Another comment you posted referenced our “...benevolent government not lasting... .” Why would you think such? What proof do you have that indicates our government will turn against us? Unless it’s Trump’s d******e and h**eful rhetoric you’re referencing, I see no eminent indications of that. As have many others, I have noticed an uptick in the number of “h**e crimes” committed since his inauguration. His own FBI has published the figures that prove that.
It seems to me you’ve been listening to way too much “h**e radio” and Faux News on your TV. You should get away from Brietbart, Infowars and Rush Limbaugh, too. From these “outlets” I’ve just mentioned is where Trump gets most of the lies he spreads. Are you aware that Trump has topped the 12 THOUSAND mark in the number of lies he’s told since taking office? That’s a récord only a moronic narcissist would be proud of.
Seeems to me, if you’re so afraid of our government becoming a totalitarian government, you should help get Trump out of office. You should help clean the Congress of the GOPTPers who support Trump and his “bought and paid for” agenda that favors the ricjph and powerful. You need to help get “Citizens United” overturned and eliminate all of the “dark money” being spent by the super-PACs and foreign money; like the money the NRA accepted from Russia and then give to NRA-supporting and Trump-supporting candidates. If we lose our “benevolent” government, it’ll be because it was sold out from underneath us by the rich and powerful; be they domestic or foreign.
TAG, Navigator! You’re it!
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