Is your local paper full of "writings of the founders" letters?

[jmowreader]

Since Sandy Hook we have received a ton of letters containing supposedly pro-any-gun sayings from the Founders.

So now I have to ask: how do we take words written in an era when the nation had three and a half million people, no money for an army and the possibility of being invaded by the monarchy we threw out six months ago, and make them work in an era when 300 million people live here and 30,000 people die by gun violence every year?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

1. Not to mention but some people equate the "founders" to the Gods of Mount Olympus

They were human beings, all with some flaws, some more so than other. Some more intelligent than other.

They were not infallible human beings to be deified.

[Aristus]

2. I think it's worth pondering how many of our Founding Fathers were in the dementia stage of

tertiary syphilis when they drafted the US Constitution.

[sadbear]

3. The subjugation of an entire race of people was legal back then, too.

[jmowreader]

9. Yeah, that's what I was thinking...

The Republicans who deify the Founders may not have considered that the Founders, by and large, held slaves and grew marijuana. Now, there's nothing wrong with growing marijuana from our perspective, but those guys on the other side are staunch anti-weed types.

[libtodeath]

4. If the founders saw the tyranny of corporate capitalism there would be another revolution

[Lint Head]

5. There are so many quotes regarding the fact the founding fathers did not want a standing army

and did want government to regulate weapons it is impossible for neocon gun nuts to cherry pick quotes without being obvious.

"To suppose arms in the hands of citizens, to be used at individual discretion, except in private self-defense, or by partial orders of towns, countries or districts of a state, is to demolish every constitution, and lay the laws prostrate, so that liberty can be enjoyed by no man; it is a dissolution of the government. The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws."
---John Adams, A Defence of the Constitutions of the United States 475 (1787-1788)

John Adams recognizes the fundamental right of citizens, as individuals, to defend themselves with arms, however he states militias must be controlled by government and the rule of law. To have otherwise is to invite anarchy.

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States. A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive."
---Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution (Philadelphia 1787).

[Drale]

6. I live just outside Chicago, a very blue area

but our local newspaper, which is generally pretty balanced when it comes to articles, only seems to publish letters from the craziest of the crazy right wingers or people complaining about sports, so I can not ever read them anymore.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

7. On my Facebook someone posted

a picture of Madeline Albright (I think) with an assault weapon and superimposed some words about evil governments and guns allegedly by George Washington.
I send it to the University of VA (Washington Papers Project) and asked if they could find a record of GW saying this.
Guess what?
They couldn't.
The lesson I learned is to challenge every one of those pro-gun founders quotes. I believe them to be mostly, or all, false............



edited for spelling and fat fingers!

[regjoe]

8. Only one way to change it - rewrite the Constitution