Gun Control and the True Historic Purpose of the Second Amendment

Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment

by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz

City Lights (2018)

Book Review

According to Dunbar-Ortiz, the main function of the Second Amendment, is to enshrine the voluntary militias used by white settlers to dispossess Native Americans of their land and compulsory slave patrols to hunt down and capture runaway slaves.

She disagrees with gun control advocates on many fronts:

First she disagrees that the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms” relates only to their use in a “well-regulated militia.” She maintains that it clearly refers to an individual right, like the other guarantees in the Bill of Rights. The Second Amendment is modeled on various state constitutions (which were already in effect) that guarantee gun possession as an individual right. Moreover the right to form state militias is already covered in Article 1 of the Constitution.

Second citing other countries like Switzerland and Canada (which rarely experience gun violence) with few or no gun control laws, she disagrees that more gun control laws will reduce gun violence in the US.

Third she disputes Democratic Party claims that blames opposition to gun control on NRA lobbying. Noting that American gun culture precedes the NRA by more than a century, she argues the organization spends far less on lobbying than Big Oil or Big Pharma.

Dunbar-Ortiz contends that US gun culture is deeply rooted in the racist, white nationalist, God-ordained nature of the virulent capitalism sanctified by the US Constitution. She reminds us of the real issue that triggered the Revolutionary War: namely the British ban on illegal settlement on unceded Indian land west of the Appalachians. George Washington and our other founding fathers derived most of their wealth from illegal surveying and speculation in Native land.

Thus when the US finally won independence in 1791, a massive escalation of “savage war” was unleashed against the indigenous nations that had civilized North America. “Savage war,” aka “irregular warfare,” refers to deliberate violence directed against women, children and the elderly, along with the infrastructure that supports their survival. Although the US government gives lip service to the Geneva Convention, which prohibits acts of war against civilians, their wars have always mercilessly targeted civilians. Prime examples are the 1846 Mexican-American War, the war against Cuba (1898-1900) and the Philippines (1898-1948) and numerous undeclared wars of the 20th century (the Korean War, Vietnam War, Central American War (1981-89), Afghan War, Iraq War, Libya War, Syria War, etc)

The most surprising part of the book is the introduction, in which Dunbar-Ortiz describes becoming a gun owner and joining the NRA when an activist group she belonged to was spied on and stalked by police and intelligence operatives.

Was Senator Paul Wellstone Assassinated?

Wellstone!

Snowshoe Films (2009)

Film Review

 

This documentary assesses the physical evidence suggesting the plane crash that killed Senator Paul Wellstone in October 2002 was actually an assassination. Wellstone, elected by Minnesota’s Democratic Farm Labor Party, was a true populist like Bernie Sanders. In addition to being the only candidate running for re-election who opposed the US invasion of Iraq, he was also raising questions about the official version of 9-11.

With his death – only 10 days before election day – his seat passed to his Republican opponent – granting Republicans regained control of both houses of Congress.

Among the anomalies explored in this film are

• the strange electrical fire (which the National Air Safety Board neglects to mention in their report) that melted copper components in the instrument panel.
• the loss of strobe and other warning lights (which the NASB report also neglects to mention), pointing to electrical failure preceding the crash.
• the mysterious disappearance of the cockpit voice recorder (black box)
• the discrepancy between witness statements and the NASB report about the altitude of the plane when it stalled out (according to eyewitnesses it was 75-90 feet, while the report indicates 1,000 feet).
• the failure of the pilots to call in a warning of the crash to air traffic controllers.
• the failure of the NASB (or FBI investigators) to mention links between one of the pilots, Michael Grass, and the “20^th 9-11 hijacker” Zacarias Moussaoui. Moussaoui’s computer, the one FBI investigator Colleen Rawley failed to get a warrant for, had Michael Guess’s aviation instruction software on it.
• the failure of the NASB to hold a public hearing on the crash, which is routine in high profile cases.
• the conclusion reached by the NASB that Wellstone’s plane crashed due to “pilot error” without presenting a shred of evidence to support this conclusion.

Independent forensic experts who reviewed both the evidence and the NASB report concluded that Wellstone’s plane crashed because the pilots were incapacitated in some way. There were a number of odd electronic anomalies reported in the vicinity of the crash that Minnesota assassination researcher Jim Fetzer believes are compatible with a directed electromagnetic pulse (EMP) or microwave weapon similar to those the Pentagon was experimenting with in Iraq.

At exactly 10.18 (two seconds before the aircraft stalled) a Duluth lobbyist traveling to the same funeral as Wellstone and his family heard a loud wailing/humming sound on his cellphone. At the exact same time a number of residents south of the airport reported garage doors mysteriously opening. In addition, a local meterologist reported a large hole in the ice clouds immediately above the crash area. This, too, would have been consistent with a directed EMP weapon.

America’s $33 Mercenaries

America’s $33 Mercenaries

Press TV (2013)

Film Review

This is a Press TV documentary about the $33 third world mercenaries lured into the Iraq war by private US private security companies like Blackwater and Triple Canopy. Unbeknownst to the American public, shortly after the 2003 invasion and occupation, the Pentagon began using private security firms to recruit private mercenaries to serve on the front line. In 2008, 70,000 of the western combatants were mercenaries, with 10% from the US and 90% from developing countries like Peru, Uganda and India.

The mercenaries were contracted through extremely profitable private security agencies like Triple Canopy (later renamed Special Operations Consulting), who charged the US government $15,000 a month per mercenary and paid the mercenaries $1,000 a month ($33 a day). By 2011, SOC discovered they could recruit mercenaries from poorer countries for $11 a day and reduced the pay scale even further.

The film follows the plight of Peruvian mercenaries SOC deliberately misled into believing they would be working as security guards in the Baghdad Green Zone (which is protected by US troops). Instead they found themselves deployed to the Basra front line in Basra when they finished their training in Jordan.

Those who were injured were denied proper medical care, resulting in needless deaths and horrendous disabilities. At present, the Peruvians in the film are suing SOC for reneging on the health and disability benefits injured mercenaries were guaranteed in their contract.

The documentary is in 2 parts, with Part 2 starting automatically when Part 1 finishes.