Just in case you were wondering, gun control has been around for a while. Here’s a history of it via IJ Review:
The history of gun control in the United States, nonetheless, is a complicated one and lends itself to in-the-moment distortion. Before we get to why the president may be the greatest gun salesman in U.S. history, let’s put the White House and the media’s claims in perspective.
Americans’ support for gun rights comes from a steep and storied historical experience of fighting repression, resisting slavery and upholding individual rights.
Prior to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution and the Second Amendment, the experience of colonialists under the British, and slaves in their respective colonies, hardened appreciation for the individual right to self-defense, expressed more recently as “the right to bear arms.”
The pre-eminent English jurist William Blackstone encapsulated this right in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, as noted by Stephen Cooper:
Blackstone states that the subject has three principal and absolute rights – to enjoyment of life and limb, health and reputation; liberty; and property – and five auxiliary or subordinate rights. These are (1) the powers and privileges of Parliament; (2) the limitation of the king’s prerogative; (3) the right to apply to the courts for redress of injuries; (4) the right to petition the king, or either House of Parliament, for the redress of grievances; and last but by no means least (5) that of having arms for their defence, suitable to their condition or degree, and such as are allowed law.
The philosophical conflict was played out in blood during the American Revolutionary War.
Read more: IJ Review
