Obama is coming for your guns!

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by matteos

How was it not? The right to defend yourself from a tyrannical government.

No, the duty to serve in the militia in order to defend the country and the government from foreign invasion and from insurrection.

"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 idea was to have each state organize a militia, comprised of all able bodied men between the ages of (I think) 17 and 47. This was to be in lieu of a standing army like Britain's, an army they had been dealing with for a very long time and were, therefore, more than a little suspicious of.

These militias were used on three significant occasions. The first two were to put down Shays Rebellion in Massachusetts and The Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania. Both of these rebellions were tax revolts. (Sound familiar?) The third was to fight the British invaders in 1812. So, it could be argued that the 2nd Amendment was actually created in part to protect a tyrannical government.

And, as a practical matter, do you really think that a bunch of Bushmaster-toting "sovereign citizen" yobs would have a chance against the US government if it decided to become "tyrannical"? And who defines what's tyrannical? Teabaggers?

John