A Few Facts: Why the Second Amendment is Sooooo Important

[Ranting Randy]

Important Facts About the 2nd Amendment

The Second Amendment is so important:
* That it wasn’t even in the original constitution.
* That it wasn’t even the First Amendment.
* That millions of Americans believe it supersedes the 6th commandment, “thou shall not kill.”
* That the Supreme Court has decided to disregard about half of it.

Below is the entire Second Amendment; the first segment is crossed out because the Supreme Court has decided to (you’re not going to believe this) completely ignore it.



Even though the Supreme Court has decided to ignore much of the Second Amendment, a sizable portion of our citizens seem to venerate what is left of the Second Amendment above the rest of the Constitution. And a large number of Americans appear to be so devoted to the Second Amendment that one might say they almost “worship” weapons, and war.

If you turn on the TV you can still find dozens of gun-focused television programs that have been broadcast and rebroadcast for over 50 years! We grew up with “Gunsmoke,” “the Rifleman,” “Colt 45,” “Wanted Dead or Alive,” “Have Gun Will Travel,” and we can still watch them today.

To write this next paragraph, I just turned on the TV in the middle of the day and flipped through the channels to see if things had changed. What I found was Murder She Wrote, Cold Case, Lock Up, Without a Trace, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NCIS, not to mention a half dozen cop and detective shows. A quick scan of shows on the air today provides a list of about two dozen gun/weapons/crime related programs. And if you include podcasts, you see our fascination with using explosives to make hot chunks of lead fly through the air and kill people has not waned, but has grown!

One point which seems to make matters worse is that many of our elected Representatives and Senators appear to be nothing more than wholly owned subsidiaries of the NRA.

You might think that after a few hundred years, our “civilized society” might evolve beyond the “Wild, Wild West” and reach the point where disagreements can be settled through means other than violence. We might be better off if our entertainment tastes moved away from mayhem and murder and migrated toward programs such as NOVA and Nature. However, Congress just implemented dramatic funding cuts which reduce the ability of public broadcasting to make these types of programs!

Even though our laws, churches, temples and mosques teach us otherwise, TV culture still reinforces the idea that reaching for a gun is something we might need to do on a regular basis.

It is possible that our entertainment tastes have begun to slightly shift. In recent years there are a number of television programs where people no longer battle it out with weapons of war, but are “battling it out” in court instead, Jerry Springer-style.

[markodochartaigh]

1. I remember the Wild, Wild West

from decades ago. It was one western where the protagonists didn’t rely on guns all of the time. In fact, one of them was an erudite scientist. He was played by Ross Martin, who in real life spoke a half dozen languages. Martin was from Ukraine. It is interesting how many famous people have Ukrainian roots, even if the borders have changed.

[Ilikepurple]

2. Loved that show as a kid nt

[usonian]

3. Worth lives?

Be careful what you wish for. You might get it.