2 ms·

> Without the 1st Amendment, where would be today? Lots of countries don't have a constitutionally guaranteed right to say harmful things or carry a sidearm, s

by geocar 3y ago

> Without the 1st Amendment, where would be today? Lots of countries don't have a constitutionally guaranteed right to say harmful things or carry a sidearm, so I'm going to say, just based on other cultural-similarities, it'd probably be a lot like the UK or Canada... > Many people on this site are not fans of the 2nd Amendment, but I think they would have to acknowledge that, without it, the situation of the armed citizenry today, while not really comparable to that of colonial times, would be much shabbier than it is erm, no, I don't think I do. It sounds a lot like you're saying you think things are "much shabbier" in the UK or Canada than in the USA, but friend this just isn't true.

flagrant_taco 3y ago
Having grown up in the US and recently spent a couple years living in a country where free speech isn't guaranteed, I feel even more strongly about the importance of the 1st amendment. The idea that one could be convicted and jailed for saying something deemed offensive in public is completely insane. If I think the PM is being an asshat I would like to be able to say that openly without fear of jail time. I don't have as much experience with the UK, but with regards to Canada I would indeed consider things there to be shabby. A peaceful protest should never be justification for the government to shut down bank accounts of private citizens. Hell even a violent protest shouldn't lead to that kind of intervention, we were shutting down bank accounts during BLM protests which were sometimes anything but peaceful.
solidsnack9000 3y ago
The armed citizenry is certainly shabbier in the UK or Canada. Americans retain much more ready access to basic small arms -- in particular, semi-automatic rifles, banned in the UK in the 1980s -- and with some trouble can get machine guns, grenade launchers, rockets, mortars and many other squad and platoon level level weapons. There are at least 600000 machine guns in private hands in the USA today, registered under the terms of the NFA; and there are probably quite a few more, since many people become Class III dealers more or less just to have them. Now, none of this is half as good as colonial times. In the United States, we didn't see much restriction of the arms market until the 1930s. Americans freely traded all classes and varieties of weaponry -- small arms, cannons, swords, &c -- during the colonial era and for more than a century after. Americans today have much less of the freedom promised by the 2nd Amendment than we used to; but we have retained much more of this particular right of the English than any other English speaking country.

by geocar 3y ago

flagrant_taco 3y ago

Having grown up in the US and recently spent a couple years living in a country where free speech isn't guaranteed, I feel even more strongly about the importance of the 1st amendment. The idea that one could be convicted and jailed for saying something deemed offensive in public is completely insane. If I think the PM is being an asshat I would like to be able to say that openly without fear of jail time. I don't have as much experience with the UK, but with regards to Canada I would indeed consider things there to be shabby. A peaceful protest should never be justification for the government to shut down bank accounts of private citizens. Hell even a violent protest shouldn't lead to that kind of intervention, we were shutting down bank accounts during BLM protests which were sometimes anything but peaceful.

solidsnack9000 3y ago

The armed citizenry is certainly shabbier in the UK or Canada. Americans retain much more ready access to basic small arms -- in particular, semi-automatic rifles, banned in the UK in the 1980s -- and with some trouble can get machine guns, grenade launchers, rockets, mortars and many other squad and platoon level level weapons. There are at least 600000 machine guns in private hands in the USA today, registered under the terms of the NFA; and there are probably quite a few more, since many people become Class III dealers more or less just to have them. Now, none of this is half as good as colonial times. In the United States, we didn't see much restriction of the arms market until the 1930s. Americans freely traded all classes and varieties of weaponry -- small arms, cannons, swords, &c -- during the colonial era and for more than a century after. Americans today have much less of the freedom promised by the 2nd Amendment than we used to; but we have retained much more of this particular right of the English than any other English speaking country.