I'm confused about the American Republican party

[kandrathe]

Just to point something out here which might not be blatantly obvious to the American Lurkers - the 2nd amendment is solely a US thing. It's really hard for me as a non-American to put something like gun ownership on the exact same level as freedom of religion or freedom of the press. I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just saying it's hard to wrap my non-American brain around it. It's like saying "Congress shall pass no law prohibiting the ownership of a lawn mower".

"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."

The origin of this is rooted in the US having been a British colony and having been oppressed for a hundred years by a professional standing army. "Militia" had a key meaning in those times, being a rally of armed citizens who would be mustered as needed. It is still understood that a well armed populace cannot be as easily dominated by a tyrant. If it comes down to it, the organized citizens will be able to vote with force of arms, when all other forms of democracy fail.

While "militia" is a bit of an anachronism, the basic principle of the freedom to defend yourself is not. The gun is still a tool for use in defending your family and property, but no longer from marauding foreign armies. The 2nd amendment is rooted deeply within republican ideas and principles back to the times of Machiavelli.

The ideological origins of the 2nd Amendment.

It was Joel Barlow, however, who most eloquently articulated the vital role of arms in American republican thought. Barlow firmly believed that one of America's greatest strengths rested in "making every citizen a soldier, and every soldier a citizen; not only permitting every man to arm, but obliging him to arm." Whereas in Europe this "would have gained little credit; or at least it would have been regarded as a mark of an uncivilized people, extremely dangerous to a well ordered society," Barlow insisted that in America "it is because the people are civilized, that they are with safety armed." He exulted that it was because of "their conscious dignity, as citizens enjoying equal rights, that they wish not to invade the rights of others. The danger [where there is any] from armed citizens, is only to the government, not to the society; and as long as they have nothing to revenge in the government (which they cannot have while it is in their own hands) there are many advantages in their being accustomed to the use of arms, and no possible disadvantage."

It was never the intention of the republican minded framers of the constitution for the US to maintain the largest more powerful army in the world. Ironically, now we do elsewhere what the British did to us.