Fw: [BearwWthoutBorders] 2nd Amendment Passed to Protect Slavery? No!

Dale, whose credentials as a radical poet and activist, are very strong for sure, writes -- and I respond following his. (H)

Thanks, Hunter.  I also object to Hartmann, whom I do like, calling domestic guns "weapons of war."  The proof that they are not is that the military would not use them for its wars.  I see the gun control movement as a facile and unfortunate distraction from critical issues whose solutions might actually reduce gun violence in the U.S., such as health care, unemployment, housing, war, climate change.  The country is literally falling apart (its infrastructure), but we are focused on implementing policies that will have no impact on these critical issues.  Dale

I certainly appreciate your comments, Dale.  Since I know a good deal about the "gun culture," I've posted many times in the last twelve years that this is an issue that should never be ignited by politicians -- if they really want to accomplish and implement meaningful social justice policies. (I certainly don't criticize gun owners and gun rights people for resisting militantly and sensibly -- and, obviously, I am in those ranks as are a number of us on these discussion lists.)  I agree -- the whole thing is a serious distraction.  It's interesting to speculate how and why it happened.

The status of the Second Amendment is, as you know, quite secure as a full member of the Bill of Rights and a safeguard for the individual right to keep and bear arms.  Any ambiguity about that ended with the USSC Heller decision in 2008 -- and the follow-up USSC MacDonald decision in 2010.

Dumping the current and very broad and mythical concept of the American "middle-class," the fact is that most of the American working-class own firearms, like them, frequently hunt with them, and, in many cases, enjoy target and match shooting.  And many see firearms in a self-defensive vein as well.

I've found myself wondering what Bill Haywood would think of this current mess.  He was essentially tactically non-violent but, as an American Westerner who grew up with firearms, he always had a revolver or two for self defense within easy reach.  The same basic socio-economic and political challenges and issues certainly remain today.

All best,

Hunter



HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org 
(much social justice material)

I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands.

See my piece ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL
ORGANIZER -- AND AN EFFECTIVE ONE (Mississippi et al.):
http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm

The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Expanded in Fall 2012. Photos. Material on our Native
background.) 

See the new and expanded/updated edition of my very well-reviewed 
"Organizer's Book" -- the inside story of the massive Jackson
Mississippi Movement, the murder of Medgar Evers, and more.
And with my new and very substantial introduction:
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm