A Conversation for The Second Amendment and Its Meaning
Peer Review: A37214606 - The Second Amendment and Its Meaning
Slartibartfast347 Started conversation Jun 12, 2008
Entry: The Second Amendment and Its Meaning - A37214606
Author: Slartibartfast347 - U10681217
For Peer Review. Any thoughts for improvement? (This is a revision from an earlier draft just titled "The Second Amendment")
A37214606 - The Second Amendment and Its Meaning
Pinniped Posted Jun 12, 2008
It's good. You seen this?
A872778
A37214606 - The Second Amendment and Its Meaning
Malabarista - now with added pony Posted Jun 13, 2008
A37214606 - The Second Amendment and Its Meaning
h5ringer Posted Jun 13, 2008
>>the United Kingdom experienced 167 gun related deaths, while the United States witnessed over 29,000 in that same year<<
Ergo, if you live by the sword, you die by the sword
A37214606 - The Second Amendment and Its Meaning
Malabarista - now with added pony Posted Jun 13, 2008
Even counting it as gun deaths per capita - which maybe you should do, the populations are hardly comparable...
The UK has a population of about 61 million, US has about 301 million - that makes
2.74 gun deaths per million people in the UK
and
96.34 gun deaths per million people in the US! That's more than 35 times as many.
A37214606 - The Second Amendment and Its Meaning
Websailor Posted Jun 13, 2008
I wonder if the recent demise of actor Charlton Heston, a prominent advocate of guns, will have any effect?
Incidentally it looks rather as if this A872778 got there (almost) first?
Websailor
A37214606 - The Second Amendment and Its Meaning
Malabarista - now with added pony Posted Jun 13, 2008
You might compare this to the example of Switzerland.
Switzerland's military (army and airforce only, since it's landlocked!) is basically a militia - every male citizen is required to join the military if able, starting at age 19-25 - and women are encouraged to do so voluntarily. Anyone who doesn't join for whatever reason has to pay an extra 3% tax every year.
That's similar to the system in a lot of countries, from Germany to Israel. But this is where it gets interesting - Switzerland also has a "Schießpflicht" - a "duty to shoot". The soldiers don't *leave* the military as such, they go home with their weapon, uniform, and other equipment as reserves, and have to take part in obligatory shooting practices with their personal weapons every year.
Every solider - every man, basically - is required to keep his personal weapon at home and ready to use, so the military can be mobilised quickly at any time.
Recently, though, there was a case in which a young soldier used his official weapon to shoot a young woman in the street. There was a big debate about whether the weapons at home should be given up, but it's in their constitution...
So they passed a new law. Every soldier is *required* to keep his gun at home, but basically isn't allowed to have ammunition
A37214606 - The Second Amendment and Its Meaning
Opticalillusion- media mynx life would be boring without hiccups Posted Jun 15, 2008
A couple of things. You don't need subheaders but headers and quotes should be either in single quotation marks or alternatively noquotation marks and set p like this:
insert quote here- who said it
A37214606 - The Second Amendment and Its Meaning
FordsTowel Posted Jun 16, 2008
Oops! Posted this in the wrong spot!
One must remember that the writers of the Constitution and its amendments were not particularly well schooled in writing or in grammar. They were often farmers, doctors, businessmen, activists, or simply politicians. For many words, spelling was not even consistent among the colonies or their citizenry.
Even printer Benjamin Franklin was not up to the task of proofreader from the viewpoint of modern grammaticians. John Adams was said to have tried to get Thomas Jefferson to change 'inalienable rights' to 'unalienable rights'.
A more sensible, and practical, interpretation to the archaic grammar of the constitution's "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" would be:
"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed because a well regulated Militia is necessary to the security of a free State." Which implies that a government cannot be trusted to be always a servant of its constituency, and that the people have the right to revolt if their government is not responsive to their needs.
It is not the State that needs to be free, but the citizens that comprise that State.
With all that said, there are still constitutionally valid laws that keep some people from owning firearms, among them the mentally unstable and convicted criminals.
What is not entirely clear is what level of weaponry should be included in one's rights. Where do machine guns, grenades, RPGs, bombs, missles, ect. fall? It's safe to assume that the framers of the amendment did not consider canons to be personal firearms, although I'm sure that many property owners had them. And pistols were notoriously bulky, inaccurate, last ditch things. Nobody predicted that they'd become as powerful and accurate as man can now produce.
The the state needs to balance the individual's right vs the right of the established constabulary to be safe from extreme firepower in the performance of their legitimate duties. It seems that a heirarchal schema is required with 1) the federal military require the broadest selection weapons in their arsenal, followed by 2) state reserves, the 3) police, and finally the 4) public and private security personnel.
A37214606 - The Second Amendment and Its Meaning
Gnomon - time to move on Posted Jun 17, 2008
A872778 is not an Edited Entry and is not in Peer Review, so you don't need to consider it.
A37214606 - The Second Amendment and Its Meaning
Malabarista - now with added pony Posted Jun 17, 2008
Well - you would if it were currently being worked on, but the author seems to have Elvised...
A37214606 - The Second Amendment and Its Meaning
BeowulfShaffer Posted Jul 13, 2008
I thought that this entry was perety good. It reminded me of one I saw recently about typos in the us constitusion. I can't rember were it is right now but I'll try to find it if you want.
A37214606 - The Second Amendment and Its Meaning
FordsTowel Posted Jul 14, 2008
It may have been mentioned, but the title does not make it clear to which document the amendment is attached. This is a BBC website, and in international repository, so you cannot make the assumption that reader will be able to make the leap from 'Second Amendment' to 'The U.S. Constitution's 2nd Amendment'.
You'll probably want a title more clear and specific than it stands right now.
A37214606 - The Second Amendment and Its Meaning
McKay The Disorganised Posted Jul 17, 2008
tut Ford's
The Second Ammendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.
It's a good entry and I think could go to the Eds as it is.
A37214606 - The Second Amendment and Its Meaning
FordsTowel Posted Aug 3, 2008
Perhaps you've just been busy; but, if you are waiting for this to get picked up, it could still be the unclear title.
There are just too many documents that might have had a second amendment made to them. Otherwise, you could just shorten it to Second Amendment.
When you add, 'and its meaning' it sort of implies an opinion piece, which generally is not accepted into the Edited Guide.
A37214606 - The Second Amendment and Its Meaning
J Posted Aug 3, 2008
"When you add, 'and its meaning' it sort of implies an opinion piece, which generally is not accepted into the Edited Guide."
That's not true.
A37214606 - The Second Amendment and Its Meaning
BeowulfShaffer Posted Aug 3, 2008
The article I mentioned earlier is A28880382 and do you mean the guide does accept opinion pieces or the title doesn't imply an opinion piece.
Key: Complain about this post
Peer Review: A37214606 - The Second Amendment and Its Meaning
- 1: Slartibartfast347 (Jun 12, 2008)
- 2: Pinniped (Jun 12, 2008)
- 3: Malabarista - now with added pony (Jun 13, 2008)
- 4: h5ringer (Jun 13, 2008)
- 5: Malabarista - now with added pony (Jun 13, 2008)
- 6: Websailor (Jun 13, 2008)
- 7: Malabarista - now with added pony (Jun 13, 2008)
- 8: Opticalillusion- media mynx life would be boring without hiccups (Jun 15, 2008)
- 9: FordsTowel (Jun 16, 2008)
- 10: Slartibartfast347 (Jun 17, 2008)
- 11: Gnomon - time to move on (Jun 17, 2008)
- 12: Malabarista - now with added pony (Jun 17, 2008)
- 13: Cyzaki (Jul 12, 2008)
- 14: BeowulfShaffer (Jul 13, 2008)
- 15: FordsTowel (Jul 14, 2008)
- 16: McKay The Disorganised (Jul 17, 2008)
- 17: FordsTowel (Aug 3, 2008)
- 18: Galaxy Babe - eclectic editor (Aug 3, 2008)
- 19: J (Aug 3, 2008)
- 20: BeowulfShaffer (Aug 3, 2008)
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