wants to read the minds of the founders (talking to you-- Scalia's Ghost) try understanding the situation of the new US, and the world at the time.

The new nation had a Navy for protection, but had no standing army. Armies were considered to be mischievous things that caused nothing but trouble. They cost money and kept on getting involved in city-states warring against each other, and revolutions when the spirit took them.

At the time, Federalists were saying there's really no need for a declaration of rights, and slave and free states were ready to cut each others throats.

State militias were the highest law of the land back then, and they could be federalized if, say, Canada invaded us. A real threat, since they were part of the British empire at the time-- the same British empire we fought again in 1812.

Anyway, NY and Virginia were the biggest states at the time, and they needed both of them to approve the Bill of Rights or it would die. Since we had no Army, state militias were it, and we had already seen how governments in Europe went after civilian arms in order to control the population. Can't have Washington locking up arms the militia might have to use.

Turns out, though, that one of the the biggest uses of the state militias was putting down slave organizing in the southern states. There were things like the Whiskey Rebellion (our first tax revolt) happening at the time of ratification, but slave revolts really scared the the shit out of Southerners and the white State militias were their defense.

There's a lot of history from back then that could be useful in the current debate.

https://rantt.com/2nd-amendment-and-slavery

And then...

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-2/second-amendment-doctrine-and-practice

hearing about a NYC cop who refused to chase an armed criminal through a warren of old apartment basements on the Upper West Side.

It all brings back the minimal training I got in urban warfare those many years ago. Urban warfare is one of the most horrific things, of the many horrific things, a soldier can experience. Every stairway is mined, every doorway hides an armed combatant whose job is simply to kill you as fast as he can. Every corner hides danger and looming death.

Accusations of cowardice are easy to make by those who have never had to face the dangers of warfare. I admit I never saw any action in my years as a draftee, but I knew many who did, and I was trained to die at the hand of those I did not kill.

Cops come in all sizes and colors, some very bad, but they all go into the cop business understanding that they are first responders-- the first to drag crash victims from their cars, treat heart attack victims until the medics arrive, comfort those who just lost their home to fire... I prefer to believe that most cops enter the field with this understanding.

They are not combat troops trained to walk into certain death, and decisions have to be made that are not always made in combat. Just how many of our lives have to be sacrificed to save those held hostage by the gunman? Heroes are often made in such circumstances, but most of us are just not hero material. Nor should we be--this is life, not a movie.

I've never really cared much for kids, and don't have any of my own. I do admire them a lot, though, for the innocence with which they greet each day. They haven't yet learned the horrible lessons they will soon enough learn. I have nothing but contempt for those who abuse them and cut off their potential.

Which brings me to the "right-to-life" dimwits. I fully understand if you have a problem with abortion, but I don't understand why you insist on pushing you beliefs on others.

I also don't understand how they can talk of ending a "life" while they watch and excuse the lives that were lost this week. The young girls that were killed had their lives stolen from them, and they had the children they could have had stolen from all of us. Where is the outcry over all of those lives lost?

But, that's speculative. Of course it is. Life itself is speculative and when you throw in war and murder it gets even worse.

It gets to the point where you almost have to believe in a God, because this can't be all there is.

control, largely because it had to be.

Tombstone AZ had tougher gun rules in the 1880's than it does now, as did much of the West. It still had a fair amount of shootouts, thanks largely to the number of guns and bars. Not everybody handed their guns into the local Marshall's office.

Cowboys, not a complimentary or folksy term as it is now, were largely ruffians, smugglers, thieves, and assorted criminals. The Clanton gag was a pretty bad one, and the Earps were trying to get their guns and stop them from selling stolen horses to the Mexicans. Dead Clantons showed the folks that gun control was not a bad thing.

Things often ignored in the telling were that the big gunfight was less than a minute long, and was actually a couple of blocks from the OK Corral. But the story got bigger with every telling. Less important at the time seemed to be that most of the gang guys were ex-Confederate soldiers who were happily used to thievery and killing. That Mexicans and Chinese did most of the actual work allowed racism to still work its ill magic. There were undoubtedly ex-slaves around, but they haven't made the records of the times.

I'll shut up now, but starting to look at gun control in the Old West leads to some interesting reading.

Just srarted the car snd the radio has our VP talking about 14 kids dead after a shooting.

Is this an old shooting, or a new one today?

Whatever it is, it is the damnation of our country.

Gunners, you have NO rights when it puts me and my neighbor's children at risk

You just don't. And it's time we did something about it.

"Trump's election lie..."

So when's the rest of the country going to figure it out?

Apparently, most of these were scarfed from a Facebook Bad Bird Photography group






https://www.boredpanda.com/bad-funny-bird-photos/

Need any more be said?

If you have a tough enough stomach;

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/05/bill-cassidy-maternal-mortality-rates

Wordle 336 4/6

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Wordle 333 5/6

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