The 2nd Amendment Of The US Constitution

1. 83

   Kangaroo_Jaseposted 5 years ago

   The 2nd Amendment Of The US Constitution
   
   Why is the 2nd Amendment Of The US Constitution culturally significant to a large portion of Americans in the modern era (post 1970 and onwards)?

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2. 85

   junksellerposted 5 years ago

   Regardless of time or place, it seems like many people are moved by very simple narratives. The 2nd Amendment is one of them. It tells people that they are Cowboys in the Wild West fighting back the hordes of marauders and highywaymen. It provides a convenient bogeyman (the government) that is the source of all evil and to which one must be prepared to resist. These types of narratives then become ingrained in families and communities. I don't mind people hunting and defending themselves, but that particular narrative, in today's modern world, is no longer relevant.
   
   I was reading a mailing from the NRA the other day and in half a page it mentioned 3 separate times that the upcoming elections was a battle for the very life of the nation and that if Obama was elected he would, despite any evidence, seize all weapons in the whole universe and that would somehow doom us all to eternal damnation in hell (okay I did exaggerate that a little (but not by much)). It doesn't really matter how hyperbolically ridiculous the narrative is. People love the story where they are the great heroes and warriors on the front lines fighting for all that is good and glorious.
   
   Narratives do not require evidence or rational thought. That is the beauty (and power) of them, and unfortunately conservatives are masters of it: American Exceptionalism (we can do no wrong), Ayn Rand (the Rich as our great benefactor), the American Dream (hard work is always rewarded( and people not rewarded obviously haven't worked hard)), etc.

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   1. 59

      thephoenixlivesposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      You are correct, you did stretch it just a bit...like a mile. the writings of our founding fathers still stand in principle. you imply that the government is good when the "State" has killed more people in the last 100 years than all others combined!

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3. 77

   ahorsebackposted 5 years ago

   Because the cultural traditions , and the very meaning of the implied rights given by the origional constitution is forever under attack from outside  of our moral and well preserved traditions .  The American pop culture of the last fourty or so years has increasingly turned towards a socialist direction. The second ammendment - is the very core of the freedom of our country! It gave the people the single most important right of a free society .....to maintain itself from the threatening powers of big government those powers abused  here or those  from across the world.  Take my power of protection - take my freedom. Technology may outdate the meaning of that implied balance but it cannot change the meaning of the implied protection of  freedoms.

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   1. 50

      joyphulposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Cultural significance, that terminology is the whole axis on which this question is balanced. Since the significance spoken of is described in a myriad of ways, this question bears great debate. First off cultural can apply to educational, artistic,

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4. 50

   joyphulposted 5 years ago

   Y'all got to forgive my blondeness. I've never done this!
        Cultural significance, that terminology is the whole axis on which this question is balanced. Since the significance spoken of is described in a myriad of ways, this question bears great debate. First off cultural can apply to educational, artistic, enlightening, enriching, intellectual, social, or ethnic. Educational can imply, not only a sense of learning, but enriching through that learning, and focus on knowledge. This focus on knowledge would enlighten, making clear, and opening social boundaries. Therein lays the concept, and the responsibility, personally, of the second amendment.
        This amendment was included within our constitution and it most likely addressed Americans have the right to own fire arms for personal protection against threats of crime, the right to hunt game, and jurisdictions have a right to have National Guards or citizen defensive forces. Note that with this last reason the guards are national and the defenses belong to citizens. This, in itself, denotes a unity, a similarity, a spirit of community. Citizenry is that group assembled under a singular alliance. This is crucial to the application of the second amendment. No waging differences of religious zealotry, racial separation, or ethnic difference. All the staples and application of the second amendment weigh entirely on the unity of community. The commonness which binds us, that of being American, with the acceptance and understanding of our differences, is the key to why the second amendment has the means to work. I have no idea where this quote originates, but it sums up the crucial, critical, learned acceptance of difference, and its application within the second amendment, “I may disagree with what you say; but as your fellow American I defend, to the death, your right to say it.” America, the world’s melting pot, where your words are your own, as long as they are not spoken with cause to incite.

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