The Bill of Rights has had a checkered history, to say the least. The fair and just enforcement of them has been wobbly from their passage until now.
The Fourth Amendment was most recently trashed by the Patriot Act. The Sixth and Seventh Amendments are routinely ignored by the overloaded and unfairly administered court system. The Eighth Amendment has depended on which way the wind was blowing for decades. The vagaries of the the Ninth and Tenth Amendments are matched and perhaps exceeded by the Second Amendment.
The Second Amendment's presumed sanctity, as championed by the NRA, is a hoary defense of what has become little more than a fetish. The simple minded belief that an eighteenth century reference to the establishment of a "well regulated militia" somehow justifies the widespread availability of high powered military grade weaponry is imbecilic.
It's easy to see why this society, with it's strains of paranoia, racism, economic inequality and class divisions has such a passionate love affair with guns. But like any relationship that is abusive and destructive, it's time for us to get out of it, grow up and use some common sense about guns.
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