U.S. Gun Rights Truly Are American Exceptionalism (Bloomberg View)

[eppur_se_muova]

I got curious and did a Google search to see how many countries have created (yes, that is the right word) a Constitutional "right" to bear arms. I got quite a range of results, but this appears to be because the answer has changed over time. Apparently, this is because countries sometimes change their constitutions, despite assurances I have recently read that this never happens.

Mar 7, 2013 6:30 PM EST
By Zachary Elkins, Tom Ginsburg & James Melton

March 8 (Bloomberg) -- What do Guatemala, Mexico and the U.S. have in common? They are among the very few countries throughout history whose constitutions have guaranteed the right to bear arms.

Our study of constitutions going back to 1789 shows that only a minority has ever included gun rights. What’s more, the number has dwindled, leaving a small and motley set of bedfellows.

For some, this lonely position is enough to suggest that the U.S. should rethink the current interpretation of the Second Amendment. For others, it is a reason to celebrate American exceptionalism.

Either way, the U.S. gun-rights debate raises intriguing questions about how other countries have addressed the issue in their constitutions. When were such rights predominant (if at all), which countries have had them, and how were these rights expressed?

Constitutions have been largely silent about such rights, and increasingly so. Twenty-four constitutions from nine countries have included gun rights in some form since 1789. Most of these constitutions date from the 1800s, and since World War II, no country has written a constitution with such a right without first having done so in the 19th century.
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more: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2013-03-07/u-s-gun-rights-truly-are-american-exceptionalism

[BarstowCowboy]

1. Mercuh!

Can I get a USA, USA?

[Electric Monk]

2. The Deadly Fraud of "American Exceptionalism" - William Rivers Pitt

[font size=-1][font color=grey]Thursday, 08 October 2015[/font][/font]

Doubtless you have heard more than once the term "American Exceptionalism." It implies, in short, that we are somehow special, different, superior. We are the "city upon a hill" whose freedoms and accomplishments set us apart. Alexis de Tocqueville coined the phrase midway through the 19th century, and it has enjoyed constant deployment by politicians and pundits ever since, because it lights a warm bulb of self-satisfaction in many bellies ... and people feeling good about themselves are easier to convince. Salesmen thrived on this axiom before Babylon's bricks were laid.

(snip)

For its part, the US said it wasn't us, then said it might have been us, then said the hospital was a nest of Taliban fighters - a claim the doctors dispute vehemently - before saying Afghan officials asked us to do it. Yesterday, President Obama personally apologized to Dr. Joanne Liu, the organization's international president, for the attack. Doctors Without Borders is not having it, and is not mincing words. Immediately after the attack, the organization's General Director, Christopher Stokes, said, "We reiterate that the main hospital building, where medical personnel were caring for patients, was repeatedly and very precisely hit during each aerial raid, while the rest of the compound was left mostly untouched. We condemn this attack, which constitutes a grave violation of International Humanitarian Law." The organization's Executive Director, Jason Cone, described it as the "darkest couple of days in our organization's history," before going on to call the attack a "war crime." After the apology, Dr. Liu demanded an independent investigation into the incident.

Never fear, however: The Authorities are on the case. The Pentagon is going to investigate the Pentagon to see if the Pentagon obliterated a hospital in Afghanistan by bombing it with precision munitions fired from a massive gunship for more than an hour, incinerating civilians, children and doctors. Sounds legit.

American Exceptionalism in full effect.

(snip)

Some 87,000 people in the US have been shot dead since the unimaginable Sandy Hook massacre. There have been 142 school shootings over that span of time, and more mass shootings than days on the current calendar. If international terrorists came to the US, killed 87,000 people and attacked 142 schools, the US Air Force would be unleashed with napalm, bombs, bullets and rage to turn the rest of the planet into smoking glass in an act of blind vengeance. Since we've done it to ourselves, however, it's just politics. The NRA is powerful, you know. Exceptional.

Here's what would actually be exceptional: Don't bomb hospitals filled with medical professional volunteers and civilians, including children. Don't ignore the fact that the gun fetish in the United States is causing bodies to be stacked like cordwood because the NRA, along with the gun manufacturers and distributers who back them, throw weight in DC. This nation is about as exceptional as the Mob: We rob, we intimidate and we kill for profit. We kill ourselves at home and kill others abroad. We are not special. We are dangerous.

It would be exceptional if we got ourselves out of the habit. I'm not holding my breath.

more...
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/33155-the-deadly-fraud-of-american-exceptionalism

Good read, imho, and I haven't seen it posted here yet.