Americans and Gun Control
Why do we differ?
To really understand guns in the U.S.A. We must go back to the very beginning. Men hiding behind trees and using guns defeated England’s army.
The Founding Fathers viewed the Second Amendment as a crucial safeguard for individual liberty and a check against tyranny. They believed that an armed citizenry was essential to maintaining a free society, drawing from their experiences with British rule and the Revolutionary War.
James Madison, who drafted the amendment, saw it as a way to ensure that the people could resist an overreaching government. In Federalist No. 46, he argued that a militia composed of armed citizens would outnumber any standing army, serving as a deterrent to oppression. Similarly, Thomas Jefferson emphasized the importance of an armed populace, writing in a letter to John Cartwright in 1824 that "the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation... forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition."
Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist No. 29, supported the idea of a well-regulated militia, tying it to the defense of the state and the preservation of liberty. He believed that citizens trained in arms were the best defense against both external threats and internal tyranny.
The amendment’s text—"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed"—reflects their dual concern: a collective defense mechanism and an individual right. At the time, "militia" meant the body of the people, not a formal government entity like today’s National Guard.
Their views weren’t uniform, though. Some, like John Adams, worried about the potential chaos of an armed populace, advocating for strong civic discipline alongside the right. Yet the consensus leaned toward empowering citizens with the means to protect their freedoms, rooted in a deep distrust of centralized power.
They couldn’t foresee modern firearms or societal shifts, but their writings show a clear intent: the Second Amendment was about balancing power between the governed and the government, ensuring the former could always defend itself.
With that as background, you can better understand the argument between the two political parties. In the extreme, Democrats want to expand government. They are for regulations to protect us. They protect us from our own stupidity. They tell us how to build our homes and cars so that they are safe, energy efficient, and save us from climate change. They tell us who can use which bathrooms. They regulate professions to keep us safe from unscrupulous people. Since government is good and out to protect us, we don’t need guns.
Contrast that with the extreme Republicans. They distrust government. They value individual freedom. They think you should be able to buy or sell whatever you want. We should all be armed to protect ourselves from others and to keep government in check.
Neither extreme is correct. We see police in crowds watching for dangerous people. However, most of the time police come after someone has been murdered. A great example was the attempted assassination of President Trump. Police didn’t take out the shooter until after he had shot. Police really don’t protect us.
Before we can discuss policy, we should know something about guns. That will be another article.