Hi Mike,

Thanks for this. The Militia Acts of 1792 provided for assembly of a militia of “every free able-bodied white male citizen” and the power of a president to call upon said militia (I wrote a PowerPoint on this awhile back).

You are correct in pointing out the Supreme Court decisions, one of which clarified the individual right to carry, but the very powerful NRA was founded and chartered in the meantime in 1871 and became the de-facto legislative body advocating for private gun ownership, and so protecting interpretation of the 2nd Amendment.

The problem with the 2nd Amendment, as with any amendment or law in America, really, is its intention to protect the white citizenry, all the while creating laws that forbade Native Americans and then ‘blacks’ from the right to bear arms, but drafting same said Native Americans and ‘blacks’ for military protection. (Hence the future rise of the Black Panther party in the 1960s, intended to protect Black Americans from its own (‘white’) country).

It kinda is a 2nd Amendment issue, particularly in the case of Philando Castile, who was purported to be a legal gun owner. Yet crickets once again from the 2nd Amendment-protecting (and very ‘white’) NRA.