Life at Gunpoint

The mythical interpretation of the Second Amendment to the Constitution originated, not surprisingly, with an NRA gathering in Texas in the 1950s, sponsored, not surprisingly, by the gun industry, that saw (correctly) huge profits to be gleaned from paranoia. The origins, of course, are and were racism. It was very simple, really. When the Constitution was being written, Southern delegates to the convention, led by Patrick Henry, were very worried about the dread possibility that slavery might be abolished in the New Republic; or even worse, that slaves would be inspired to rebel, should any of them be able to read, or overhear discussions regarding 'freedom,' and might wrongly construe that it somehow might apply to them; thus goading them to act inappropriately, i.e. revolt. Mr. Henry, a prominent Virginia lawyer as it happened, owned 110 slaves, and other family members many more. His worry was very simple: there must be a readily available means for putting down any potential slave rebellion. And the Second Amendment was that means. It would provide for an armed militia, to put down any potential rebellions by slaves. Period. There were no police forces with military weapons back then to do the job (there are now, of course). There were only slave holders versus slaves, backed by whatever majordomos and other local white thugs as could be conscripted to put down uppity blacks on call.

Nothing about arming individuals whatsoever: this was the conceit of that Texas meeting (the leader of which, by the way, was a convicted murderer and former KKK leader). In any case, the rest is history, so that now not only do blacks live under the gun, but so do the rest of us. It was planned this way, by David Duke and the likes of Rep. Scalisi, who apparently didn't know his host was leader of the KKK (which, as another witness quoted in the NY Times pointed out, would be like going to a James Brown concert and claiming you didn't know James Brown would be performing).

If you don't think you are living at gunpoint, consider a recent town hall meeting in the State of Washington. The town council was considering whether or not to ban firearms in a city park where mothers brought their children to play (as per yesterday's news, we now know guns in the hands of children are perfectly harmless, right?). An NRA member of a local one-man militia took objection, and (legally) showed up in town hall with an AK-47. Was he influencing that town hall meeting at gunpoint? Of course not. He was merely exercising his Constitutional rights.

The bill didn't pass.

All of above, in footnote, is why I decided to create a detective character who actually doesn't carry a gun (my P.I. Tony Lowell, who will be resurfacing after a ten year hiatus in my forthcoming new mystery RED TIDE). Stay tuned. And be prepared to duck.

Postscript: I once attended a meeting in Miami where the speakers were real-life private investigators. As a rule (granted this was in the 90's) they never carried weapons. It was just too dangerous. Who knows, some 'monster' or 'Hulk' might take it away from you! Which is how more homicides take place than you know. Or want to.