[lostalex]

Originally Posted by Livia

The Second Amendment, the right to bear arms was added during the time of the Wild West, when it was okay to own slaves... and they're still defending it! Madness...

Hey wannashag, nice to see you!

its not really about that Livia, the second amendment was added because there was no strong government after the british, and we had open borders. so we needed militias to be able to defend themselves against the british in the north, the spanish(mexicans) in the south, and against Indian tribes, there was no way for the US army to be covering all of those bases back then. We needed militias to protect this country because we had ever expanding borders and really, back then it was up to the American people to protect their own towns. there was no way for the US military to get anywhere quickly and protect our borders back then. it would take a month before any kind of federal help could respond if there was any kind of invasion from the british canadians or the spanish mexicans so we needed to rely on the american people themselves to protect our borders and land. It's much like the swiss now, they have guns in every house, because they need ordinary citizens to protect the country incase any one tries to invade.