Look, I'm glad we're having a conversation about the hypocrisy of the legal logic used by America's gun nuts.
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Postscript: Here are two people who brought guns to a protest and are not only still alive, but were subsequently invited to speak at the 2020 RNC. The fact that this protest was in support of George Floyd does not imply a contradiction in the gun nut world view.
@SeanCasten Rep. Casten as you know they don’t need to be consistent in 2A or anything else. There are millions of law abiding liberal gun owners. The “gun nuts” as you call them are the MAGA that DHS is recruiting. I already own firearms and with ICE/DHS/CPB forcibly entering homes without a warrant or probable cause, I am upping my game. People who own firearms are not “gun nuts” - that is a MAGA problem. #selfdefense #liberalgunowners #armyourfriends #2AforAll
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Postscript: Here are two people who brought guns to a protest and are not only still alive, but were subsequently invited to speak at the 2020 RNC. The fact that this protest was in support of George Floyd does not imply a contradiction in the gun nut world view.
Not only "brought guns," but brandished them at protestors. That woman's finger is on the trigger.
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1) to enforce the laws of the US; 2) to defend against foreign invasions and 3) to suppress domestic insurrections. The folks who wrote this had direct, recent experience with Shay's Rebellion, the Revolutionary War and lived in constant fear of slave rebellions. 1, 2 and 3 respectively.
@SeanCasten Rep. Casten everyone in my state is, by law, a member of the militia. Legal precedent says that militia means the National Guard. You don’t like how 2A has been interpreted to mean there is an individual right to own firearms but that is *irrelevant* now. The question is whether the People can exercise those rights for #selfdefense in the face of tyrannical 4A and 1A violations. That is the question that you and other leaders must address.
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But the fear of "domestic insurrectionists" from Denmark Vesey to the Black Panthers is still there. And it's not accidental that the Scalia court ruled in Heller that the first 13 words of 2A are "merely prefatory" and no longer apply.
@SeanCasten you had me jumping on to Wikipedia for Denmark Vesey. Didn't learn THAT in school. Thank you.
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@SeanCasten They didn't bring guns to a protest. They aimed guns *at* a protest.
@maccruiskeen @SeanCasten
Yes, massive distinction. Rittenhouse crossed state lines looking for people to shoot. -
Look, I'm glad we're having a conversation about the hypocrisy of the legal logic used by America's gun nuts. But can we stop pretending this is a new thing? They have never advocated for universal access to firearms. They only want their team to be armed. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/01/25/alex-pretti-gun-debate-second-amendment/
@SeanCasten Also, the “anti-tyranny” gun zealots are the same ones jumping to cosplay military with ICE.
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Look, I'm glad we're having a conversation about the hypocrisy of the legal logic used by America's gun nuts. But can we stop pretending this is a new thing? They have never advocated for universal access to firearms. They only want their team to be armed. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/01/25/alex-pretti-gun-debate-second-amendment/
Please stop pushing the coup paper
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@SeanCasten Isn't the national guard the well-regulated militia? Cause they were called as much as the "regular" military to fight abroad. Sometimes moreso.
@AlliFlowers @SeanCasten What they are is the organized (as in organized by the state governnent, not as in "orderly") militia, in contrast to the unorganized militia (the citizenry at a minimum). I don't have it on hand but there's a cookbook from about the same time that includes in its lengthy 18th century subtitle the term "well regulated kitchen", as an example of the term definitely not referring to legal specification but to refer to being in good working order.
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@AlliFlowers @SeanCasten What they are is the organized (as in organized by the state governnent, not as in "orderly") militia, in contrast to the unorganized militia (the citizenry at a minimum). I don't have it on hand but there's a cookbook from about the same time that includes in its lengthy 18th century subtitle the term "well regulated kitchen", as an example of the term definitely not referring to legal specification but to refer to being in good working order.
@lepidotos My kitchen is definitely not well-regulated.
@SeanCasten -
@SeanCasten The well regulated militia is the National Guard, the existence of which is supposed to prevent federal tyranny by avoiding the need for a standing federal army to operate on US soil or operate abroad without a Congressional declaration of war for that matter. Since we have a permanent federal army always operating abroad, we’ve violated this principle since at least WWII and thus haven’t restrained the military industrial complex as Eisenhower warned.
https://www.amazon.com/Second-Amendment-Biography-Michael-Waldman/dp/1476747458
@opethminded @SeanCasten No it isn't the NG is the organized (as in organized by the state, not as in orderly) militia. The government wouldn't need to grant itself the right to arm the NG because that's more or less the definition of what a government is, a group with enough legitimacy to hold the monopoly of power. Even if it did, it wouldn't use the phrase "the people" when writing the permission letter to the state governments.
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@lepidotos My kitchen is definitely not well-regulated.
@SeanCasten@AlliFlowers @SeanCasten I'd recommend at least considering these points, even if you end up disagreeing with them: https://bitbang.social/@lepidotos/115963676755030294
Ultimately I'd respect the anti-gun position more if it didn't try to use a false air of legitimacy when there's a perfectly legitimate route for it in advocating for the repeal of the amendment rather than contorting it into a pretzel.
And true, mine isn't great either, but I did get it cleaned a bit recently and that's been nice. -
Postscript: Here are two people who brought guns to a protest and are not only still alive, but were subsequently invited to speak at the 2020 RNC. The fact that this protest was in support of George Floyd does not imply a contradiction in the gun nut world view.
@SeanCasten ICE have brought guns to every protest they've been at.
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@dontreportme @opethminded @SeanCasten If you take defending the nation as upholding the status quo political and economic structures (which, I assume you're a lib so I'd say so), then I can see that position, I suppose.
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@dontreportme @opethminded @SeanCasten That's really not an immutable quality though; when.properly organized, it can be effective enough to be treated seriously. Blair Mountain was the one time the US was scared enough by the citizen militia that it dropped bombs; the Panthers scared them enough to lead to the 1968 GCA. Even if an all out war wouldn't go well for the citizens, historical example suggests it's nowhere near hopeless.
Also, less an accusation and more a guess. -
Postscript: Here are two people who brought guns to a protest and are not only still alive, but were subsequently invited to speak at the 2020 RNC. The fact that this protest was in support of George Floyd does not imply a contradiction in the gun nut world view.
Wrong. They were against against the protest, they went there to shoot or terrorise protestors, because they are white supremacists militia.
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And given the size and power of the US military (esp as compared to our founding era when we neither had a standing army nor the tax system to pay for it) it also doesn't make any sense to suggest Congress might need to call up well regulated militias to defend against foreign invasion.
@SeanCasten this right here is why it's dumb to think a 2A militia could stand in a shooting match with an entrenched authoritarian regime. Logistics, people. An army marches on its stomach. Strikes and mass civil disobedience (nonviolent, because that's the only way to ensure mass participation).
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