News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on The 2nd Amendment should protect the Internet, not your AK47. Parent comment

Re:The 2nd Amendment should protect the Internet, not your AK47 by RyanMcGreal on Friday December 21, 2012 @12:32PM (#4953601)
It also stretches credulity to argue that the right of citizens to defend themselves from tyranny in a militia means it's acceptable to own and keep a semiautomatic high-calibre firearm with a 50-round magazine for personal use.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The 2nd Amendment should protect the Internet, not your AK47 by mindcrime on Friday December 21, 2012 @12:35PM (#4953611)
It also stretches credulity to argue that the right of citizens to defend themselves from tyranny in a militia means it's acceptable to own and keep a semiautomatic high-calibre firearm with a 50-round magazine for personal use.

No, it really doesn't. Especially when you consider that the SCOTUS has found the 2nd Amendment to refer to an individual right[1]. The "militia" stuff is a red-herring these days.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_v._Heller

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The 2nd Amendment should protect the Internet, not your AK47 by RyanMcGreal on Friday December 21, 2012 @12:41PM (#4953640)
A respectful note from the rest of the world: the current, conventional interpretation of the 2nd Amendment is batshit crazy.

It would be hilarious if it didn't predictably result in over 30,000 gun deaths a year.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The 2nd Amendment should protect the Internet, not your AK47 by refurb on Friday December 21, 2012 @01:32PM (#4953858)
I'm going to guess that Switzerland doesn't share the opinion that America's gun laws are "batshit crazy".

Every citizen who has served in the military (most of them due to compulsory duty), is required to keep a fully automatic weapon in their house.

You have a country where a young man can do his grocery shopping with a military rifle across his back and no one bats an eye:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/53/Car...

I'll also guess that Israel has similar feelings too.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The 2nd Amendment should protect the Internet, not your AK47 by pyre on Friday December 21, 2012 @02:06PM (#4954012)
I'm sure that military service:

1) Is a better filter of those that shouldn't own a gun.

2) Trains a certain level of responsibility / respect for the weapon.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The 2nd Amendment should protect the Internet, not your AK47 by gregcohn on Friday December 21, 2012 @12:44PM (#4953651)
100% agree. IANAL or constitutional scholar, but it seems to me that history plays a big part in the interpretation of this as an individual right. It seems more likely to me that we could get new laws on the books, or perhaps expand the definitions of the 1st amendment to include electronic communications, that get a radical new interpretation that the internet is a weapon.

"The pen is mightier than the sword" has been around a long time -- tell that to the gun nuts though.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The 2nd Amendment should protect the Internet, not your AK47 by njharman on Friday December 21, 2012 @12:54PM (#4953693)
I assume "defend themselves from tyranny" means revolution. Most revolutions require guns (bigger and/or more than the tyranny has) Killing the tyranny's people until the tyranny gives up or is destroyed.

To me it stretches credulity that it's constitutional to deprive U.S. citizens the ability to overthrow their government. That is deprive them of weapons capable of that overthrow.

[ Parent | on HN ]