Hmm.

Posted by Someone Else at 10:24pm Nov 29 '13
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So, I don't really have much of an opinion one way or the other on this, but just playing a bit of devil's advocate and maybe getting a little education on your perspective in the process...

The Second Amendment says: "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." (capitalization/punctuation varies a bit, but the words are the same--emphasis mine)

Now...this is the entirety of the text.

Which leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

It does not say anything about limitations, either for or against. It does not say we can have assault rifles (of course, they didn't exist when this was written), or rifles, or pistols. It doesn't say we can't, either. I think it's not unreasonable to assume it applies to weapons of that time period--which means AK-47s are not covered, but also not explicitly forbidden either. Guns have obviously come a long way since then, so maybe this now-antiquated Amendment needs updating (of course, getting everyone to agree on how it should be updated is the problem--there are extremists on both sides, and lots in the middle, and no one solution that will ever make everyone happy).

So anyway...how is putting restrictions and requiring gun owners to surrender weapons that don't fit those restrictions in violation of such a vaguely defined American right?

It's potentially a slippery slope--they're taking away our AK-47s, next up is our rifles, then our pistols, then a blanket outlaw. But I don't think there's much merit to slippery slope arguments. We just have to put in a stop somewhere on the slope and not slip past that and all is well.

I guess what I'm coming to is...can you explain to me why you find this so reprehensible?

Please bear in mind I'm asking with a genuine desire to learn, not trying to poke holes or otherwise do anything that should spur defensiveness--I just want to understand, not argue...or at least not argue until I do understand. :P