The Second Amendment Needs Clarification.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/opinion/rewrite-the-second-amendment.html? Coincidently, I was thinking about this very thing, and share the sentiment of the author. The only thing I would add is that virtually no one understands what the Second Amendment really means. What it had intended to do was to create a system much like what still currently exists in Switzerland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Switzerland ,http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/21/gun-violence-proposal-militias-second-amendment-nra-obama/ So basicly, this constitutional amendment was intended as a "nuts to you" directed at the notion of a professional standing military. What the framers wanted to avoid were "few, and proud marines", for example. Instead they wanted for the people to be empowered to defend both themselves, and their free state. But from what I've been seeing, conversly, people whom support gun rights in this country also are expressing support for the military. I disagree with this attitude. If we entrust our protection to an armed elite, then what's the sense of even having civillian firearms ownership? The Ohio State Constitution puts it even more explicitly. http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/constitution.cfm?Part=1&Section=04 But with that being said, another thing that gun rights extremists seem to forget is that the U.S. Constitution was initially drafted in response to the abuses of the right to bear arms, as it pertained to Shay's Rebellion http://www.calliope.org/shays/shays2.html. And during The Whiskey Rebellion, the Federal Government used state militias to suppress the use of private civillian firearms against the government. http://consortiumnews.com/2012/12/21/the-rights-second-amendment-lies/ , http://cognidissidence.blogspot.com/2013/01/2nd-amendment.html The last time that this system was used in America was during the Civil War. My one ancestor, Stephen Duncan Burns was part of the state militia sent to quell the rebellion of secession, and guard Pennsylvania from invasion. http://www3.familyoldphotos.com/photo/pennsylvania/7358/stephen-duncan-burns It seems that after the Civil War however, the Federal government no longer tended to trust the people to responbibly defend itself, without potentionally commiting sedition, and/or other violent crimes. And so the Second Amendment has since been disregarded in various ways. P.S. I haapen to know from personal experience that in Western PA. , the spirit of the Whiskey Rebellion still lives on. Pres. Barack Obama's remarks, however blunt perhaps, were spot on. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-no-surprise-that-ha_b_96188.html It's practicly a functional anarchy over in the backwoods country. Rather than keeping up any sizable local police forces, they just tend to rely on their own selves, and guns, in solving problems, and settling disputes. It's just the way that it's traditionally been. And it might even explain somewhat my own libertarian political tendency, left-wing though it be. :) So if you ever decide to visit our fair state, keep in mind that "don't tread on me" is not merely a slogan, it's a way of life.