fredag 25. januar 2013

The beginning..

Hi and welcome to my blog...

Time to start scrabble down about my life before it passes by in distant memories. My daddy and my sister's boyfriend are doing so well with their blogs. 

The right to bear arms ... and a head ...

In my recent trip to america the gun control debate was heated. In response to the bad school-shooting incident, Obama promised to tighten gun control while NRA instead was suggesting to arm teachers.

Second Amendment

As passed by the Congress:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
As ratified by the States and authenticated by Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State:
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Some grammatical cotrections by Thomas.

All those guns...

My thoughts are most definitely colored with a European citizen's view on it. I don't even see police carry guns. I wonder why anyone would want to have so much guns floating around. Do you really feel safer when all neighbors are armed with pistols and shotguns? Can he shoot you if you enter his yard to pick up the soccer ball that flew over the fence? Would he shoot you if you insult him during the neighborhood barbecue? I always felt uneasy when people have the a gun in their belt and even troubled when people start fiddling with their guns. it's like the conversations suddenly die off in fear of accidentally including saying something offensive. It may not be dangerous at all, but to a person who almost never see a gun it makes it uneasy.


Right to bear what, where and when ...

I think it is fairly far-fetched to say that carrying a gun is a constitutional right. First of all it does not specify what kind of arms we are talking about. Secondly it does not say where you should be allowed to carry it. Finally it is not in the constitution at all, it's an amendment and those have been reversed before, remember the prohibition in the 1920's about intoxicating liquids.

What is arms? Maybe it is a little over the top when the airport security classifies my nail-clipper as arms, but maybe not over the top for box-cutters as they used in 9/11.What if you should take up arms against the state which would be the other meaning of the amendment's text. I think to topple the state you better equip a hydrogen bomb to have any chance. 

The time the "Bill of Rights" was written was very different from now. The "militia", the police, FBI and CIA did not have the same influence and oversight as now. The wild west was hardly discovered and only simple firearms like muskets and flintlock pistols were available to protect yourself from bandits. I don't think the founding fathers were thinking of Rambo armed with machine guns and bazookas. Was it even about guns? The Chinese were through history not even allowed to have a sword. The best they could do was a pitchfork or other disguised as farming tools. Was it the subduing of the people against the state they were thinking about or was it the protection against criminals?

My cousins ...

My cousins live in the upstate NY area in what you could consider country-side. My life in the US was mostly based in rural areas like Nashua and the suburban outskirts of Boston. People are living the american dream with houses, big gardens and a pickup truck parked in the drive-way. To me it seems like the republicans are favored in the country side where hunting and military service is big. The democrats on the other hand is more for city people who live in their apartments downtown and cannot understand why anyone needs a gun. To my friends in the country-side the gun seems a natural company whether you want to get rid of a snapping turtle or scare off some annoying birds.