I wouldn't assume you are a gun obsessed nut because you think differently from me. In fact, your ability to argue in a civil manner would cause me to bet that you were not a gun obsessed nut.
But I'd urge you to look deeper than the Constitution for the answers to questions about what's best for the country. It's just a piece of paper, written by men in a very different time than ours. Rather than abide by the dictum of that piece of paper, ask yourself how you'd shape a nation if you were starting one from scratch. Forget this idea that we're locked into these old, vague words and their interpretations by old, flawed men and women.
Who knows, maybe you'd include the Second Amendment word-for-word in your Constitution if you were creating one from scratch. But, when your colleagues asked you why you thought the "right to bear arms" was so important, I hope you could give a better answer than "Well, some old men thought it was important hundreds of years ago."
On that note, I'm going to bed! Thanks for the discussion.
I have researched this subject a lot, and I can assure that yes, I have far more reasons than just because the Founders intended it.
For 1, more armed populaces tend to be safer places to live. To quote Heinlein, "An armed society is a polite society", and there is evidence to that fact here in America. Of interest is a place called Kennesaw, GA which, in 1981 (I think) they enacted a law encouraging every head of household to own a firearm. In the year they enacted that law, burglaries in the town of Kennesaw dropped 80%. Since then, their crime rate has held at FAR below the national average, as well as the state of Georgia. Somewhat ironically, it obviously didn't "solve crime", but did displace it to areas outside of Kennesaw to a very large degree. Before the law was enacted, it seemed as though every media outlet in the nation was decrying the law as it would surely be "a wild west town" and "blood in the streets" and all that, but that never happened. What happened instead is that they effectively pushed crime (and presumably criminals) out of town. Since then, the population of Kennesaw has quintupled, but crime rates have stayed low.
Meanwhile, if you look to Morton Grove, IL, they enacted a gun ban at a similar time, and crime (of all types) went up across the charts. When they repealed their gun ban, crime went down. The data on Morton Grove isn't quite as marked as Kennesaw (e.g., only 17% difference instead of the more obvious 80%), so it's possibly attributable to other factors, but it's hard to explain away the results in Kennesaw.
Further, the state that has the highest concentration of "fully automatic" machine guns (e.g., already to buy new) is New Hampshire. They also have some of the most lax gun control in the nation. Open carrying firearms is fairly common place in New Hampshire, and if I recall correctly, the only thing you need a permit for is to concealed carry in a vehicle. On top of that, their state buildings don't even have metal detectors, and you're allowed to carry guns in there. Wild West sounding? Maybe, but it's the third safest state in the union.
Again, I have more data to support my position with better than "cause the Constitution said so", though I do obviously agree with my interpretation (which is also the Supreme Court's interpretation) of what it means.
But I'd urge you to look deeper than the Constitution for the answers to questions about what's best for the country. It's just a piece of paper, written by men in a very different time than ours. Rather than abide by the dictum of that piece of paper, ask yourself how you'd shape a nation if you were starting one from scratch. Forget this idea that we're locked into these old, vague words and their interpretations by old, flawed men and women.
Who knows, maybe you'd include the Second Amendment word-for-word in your Constitution if you were creating one from scratch. But, when your colleagues asked you why you thought the "right to bear arms" was so important, I hope you could give a better answer than "Well, some old men thought it was important hundreds of years ago."
On that note, I'm going to bed! Thanks for the discussion.