The Second Ammendment Lobby and Police Safety

[TheCurmudgeon]

First off, the term "assault weapon" has dubious origins making it no more than a meme within the US culture.

The history of the term can be found on Wikipedia. I have already cited it, although the term clearly causes confusion.

In regards to legislating "assault weapons" there's already a ton of ink on the books.

The founding fathers, as a majority, saw firearms as an individual right despite what many "constitutional lawyers" will say to the contrary. One only needs to study the history of the US to see why they saw this as an important individual right.

I have already stated that this is not about gun rights or the second amendment per se. But, as long as you raise the issue, the founding fathers were simply following English tradition. They were demanding rights they expected as Englishmen and they built those same rights into our Constitution.

That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law

This provision in the English Bill of Rights is the forbearer to the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It is based upon the premise that the best defense against tyranny is a well armed populace. Under Cromwell, the government was authorized to seize weapons from all Catholics or those that were deemed dangerous to the government.[15] In America, the possession of the arms by the general populace allowed for the creation of militias which ultimately overcame the English Army.

In both England and America, the right to bear arms has always been one of the most controversial of constitutionally guaranteed rights. England effectively reversed this privilege with the Firearms Act of 1920. That act required subjects to receive a certificate from the police in order to legally posses a gun, and that certificate was not granted as a simple ministerial act as it is with background checks in the United States. The ability of the English to possess weapons has been limited much further under subsequent firearms acts.

In the United States, the right to bear arms is protected much more strongly. The second amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that, “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 meaning of this provision has been highly contested, and it is not generally viewed in an absolute

This was nothing new at the time.

For a quick overview of how the right came into existence in England see the history of the Glorious Revolution and the Bill of Rights of 1689.