The recently released documentary, “Gun Nation – America’s Love Affair with Firearms,” published by DW, a German public broadcast service, purports to present a balanced view of gun ownership in America.
At least that’s what the filmmakers would have casual viewers believe. They imply that the documentary offers perspectives from both sides of the gun debate, presenting a comprehensive examination of the issue.
While the film does feature some pro-gun advocates — good folks at the Gunstie Academy in Arizona, and some of our friends over at NAGGA — it’s hard to ignore the producers’ clear anti-gun bias.
Perhaps the most striking instance of this bias is the argument put forth by the narrator that the right to keep and bear arms is “deeply steeped in the United States historical racism.”
To support this contention, the filmmakers interview Jennifer Carlson, the author of “Policing the Second Amendment.”
SEE ALSO: ACLU Has it Backwards: 2A Isn’t Racist, Gun Control Is!
Carlson claims, “At that time the state militia was the slave patrol. So, if the federal government, by virtue of the U.S. Constitution, didn’t protect a state’s right to have a militia or in other words, a slave patrol, that could fundamentally undermine the system of slavery that was integral to the United States at its founding.”
While it is true that lynch mobs and slave patrols existed, particularly in the antebellum South, there is zero evidence to suggest that when the founders and framers drafted the Second Amendment they were motivated by a desire to protect the interests of slaveholders.
On the contrary, the Second Amendment was enshrined as a means to ensure citizens could repel tyranny. In a nutshell, it was a safeguard against oppression. You know, things like systemic slavery.
Remember, per the text, the operative clause states “the right of the people…” not the right of the militia or government. It’s also worth noting, as the National Review has, that John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Adams were abolitionists who backed one’s natural right to keep and bear arms.
As Adams famously said, “Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States… I have, through my whole life, held the practice of slavery in… abhorrence.”
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Does that sound like a guy who wants to protect slave patrols?
Yes, it can be argued America took too long to eradicate slavery. Our forefathers, although not perfect, could have acted sooner. However, the indisputable truth is that good men with guns heralded the end of slavery. Many of these men were, indeed, former slaves.
Which brings up a crucial point. That is, the best way to free the enslaved is to arm them. As the popular saying goes, an armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a slave.
The architects of our Constitution, despite their flaws, recognized the significance of safeguarding the fundamental right to self-defense. This right was not just about individual well-being, but the very survival of our free Republic.
Fast forward to today, the opponents of gun rights, including the makers of “Gun Nation,” are striving to disarm America. Including the descendants of slaves. Their vision for America is one where only the powerful bear arms.
If there’s a path leading back to the existence of slave patrols, it is not being paved by us, but rather by them.
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This would be even MORE humorous if it were a British ‘documentary’ since, in point of fact, OUR SECOND AMENDMENT IS BECAUSE OF THEM!!!!
Explain the ‘racism’ in that FACT!
I would like to post a comment and did but the jackboots that run this forum deleted it. They scream incessantly about the Second Amendment and like good little Nazi’s do not allow free speech and opposing political viewpoints. Hitler would have loved them.
The “Nazi’s” were somewhat organized, these guys here, not so much. Post whatever you want, they dont care. It might pop up right away or it might take a long time. It’s NOT personal, it’s NOT a conspiracy, try to get over yourself.
Yeah, I really want to listen to anything coming from Germany; the country that gave us two world wars in the last century!
Historically…. “the Polka” dance (and music) was early indoctrination training for the German youth, so they’d be able to “properly” Goose Step when they were FORCED into the German (Nazi) army.
Page right out of the far left’s playbook: if it’s something they oppose, pull out the hot-button “R-word”.
Correction: “Bear Arms” not Bare Arms
The Second Amendment with clearer wording. “A Militia is Necessary for the Security of a Free State. However, history has shown that Governments of States have at times turned their Armed Militias against the very people they were formed to protect. Therefore, The People need a way to Regulate the Militias. This is accomplished by not Infringing on the Peoples Rights to Keep and Bare Arms.”
quote——————While it is true that lynch mobs and slave patrols existed, particularly in the antebellum South, there is zero evidence to suggest that when the founders and framers drafted the Second Amendment they were motivated by a desire to protect the interests of slaveholders——————-quote
Falsehood.
Surviving letters from both Madison and Jefferson prove they were terrified of the ongoing slave revolt in Haiti. Slave owners there were fleeing to the U.S. and bringing along some of their slaves and it was feared to slave revolt in Haiti would spread into the U.S.
2A was crafted to entice the States to join the Federal Government by letting them have their own private slave murdering armies. 2A actually had zero to do with the individual’s right to own weapons. 2A was also written as vaguiley as possible so that the courts could restrict and ban guns as well as uphold pre-revolutionary anti-gun laws already on the books such as laws in big cities that outlawed both concealed and open carry and laws that made keeping a loaded gun in the home illegal because so many children were being accidently killed with loaded guns laying around the house..
You mean where the Hatians killed the French men and then put on the powdered wigs and raped the French women?
Blacks enslave blacks in Africa to this day. Blannelberry made an obvious white guilt-ridden reference to this country’s founders not having enough foresight. The scale of farming needed in previous centuries in the US and Brazil dictated that cheap unskilled labor had to be used. After the production of the first self-propelled harvester in 1911, blacks in North America were an unneeded subpopulation. Modern, self-propelled, lightweight combines didn’t roll off assembly lines in the US until the late 1930’s.
couldn’t it be maybe……. just maybe………that guns and patriots were the main reason for freeing us from british tyranny?????
Jennifer Carlson is the kind of knucklehead who believes that if America legislates a reduction in the price of ice cream, we can reduce shark attacks.
She uses the same ignorant logic in her “2A was for slave patrols, to protect the institution of slavery” argument (in context).
As for the tie between the Constitution, the U.S., and the existence or abolition of slavery, you MUST understand Jefferson’s comments regarding the fragility of the newfound independent nation AT THAT TIME. America in the late 1700s (post 1776, and leading up and following ratification in 1788) could not withstand an “internal” strife on the slavery front, having just bent-to-breakpoint defeating the British. Economically, politically, and militarily, slavery was an issue that had to be deffered. Thus the 70-80 years between Decl of Independence/Constitution and the civil war. However, the CITIZENS of the new land armed themselves to fight the strongest military on the planet at the time. Arming citiens to fight against tyrants AT ANY TIME was the ultimate reason for 2A.
2A has NOTHING to do with slave patrols. Coincidence not correlation. Learn your history, and use accurate logic, Ms. Carlson!!
Stop taking shit out of context 250 years later! Jeesh!
Damn libtards.
That is the stupidest idea about the 2A that I have ever heard. And, I have heard them all. Why can’t people understand the simple proposition that the Founding Fathers wanted to make sure that WE all had guns of the type necessary to overthrow the new government they were creating in case it “got to big for its britches.”
Memo for Jennifer Carlson: It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Dearie, you’re entitled to your own opinions but not to your own facts.
If they’re going to go that far, then let the record reflect that we should disregard anything from a German public broadcast service, which obviously wants to restrict the rights of any citizens or subjects who might disapprove of National Socialist principles. Those policies are still within living memory, a lot closer to the current day than slavery is in the US. Germans do love them some hakenkreuz…their knees get stiff just thinking about it…
Ah, that old, sad “if you don’t agree with me you are a racist” trope. Haven’t heard that one before…
Another hit piece in a long line of them… Just as a side note I recently made up some shit proving all the “Slave Patrols” were Democrats… Then as today they are still trying to keep them on the Ghetto-Plantations…
Wow…can’t even hardly even tell who birthed that propaganda piece. So-called journalists doing the bidding of their betters. THAT’s integrity for you. If you tie everything to victimhood, to race, to class, then the rest of us know exactly who you’re working for. Plain as the nose on your face. Sycophants like her would be funny if they weren’t such an insult to the very breath and pulse of humanity. Marxist much, lady?
What did two of America’s Founding Fathers WRITE about firearm ownership in America and the reason the Second Amendment was vital to the future of our Country? Take it away President Washington,
“It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even his personal services to the defence of it, and consequently that the Citizens of America (with a few legal and official exceptions) from 18 to 50 Years of Age should be borne on the Militia Rolls, provided with uniform Arms, and so far accustomed to the use of them, that the Total strength of the Country might be called forth at a Short Notice on any very interesting Emergency.
A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite.”
Anything to add President Jefferson?
“The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the press.
And most importantly,
“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms.”
Anything else you would like to say to Americans in 2023 President Washington, President Jefferson?
“Yes, there is, Fellow Americans, you need to stop drinking the Kool-aid morally corrupt politicians are pouring and READ for yourself the documents we wrote for you, our future Countrymen if you ever had questions. One more thing, the Seventeen Amendment, you should repeal it immediately if you want to put an end to career politicians and return the power to the people.