[Raellus]

What a lot of people don't understand is that the "Founding Fathers" were, by and large, opposed to the idea of rule by the masses. They were largely patrician in their socio-economic status, education, and outlook. They, by and large, believed in the Enlightenment ideals of natural rights, but they didn't necessarily believe in universal suffrage. To avoid what they called the "Tyranny of the Mob" is why they created a republic instead of an Athenian-style direct democracy. Landless citizens were precluded from voting in most states until the early 1800s (black men didn't get the vote, technically speaking at least, until the passage of the 15th Amendment in the early 1870s and women didn't get the vote until 1920). The idea that the common citizenry should be armed so that it could oppose government tyranny is a bit of modern myth-making. To illustrate this point, consider two early internal rebellions in America's national (post-colonial) history. Shay's Rebellion (a rebellion of farmer-debtors in W. Pennsylvania) put a nail in the coffin of the Articles of Confederation (our first national constitution)/Confederation Congress and prompted the creation of our current U.S. Constitution and a much stronger federal government. The more plausible reason that the Founders created the Second Amendment is that it was a proactive/preemptive response to continued British and Native American agitation on the Northwest Frontier. The earliest use of militias in our national history was in Indian-fighting. A "well-regulated militia" was needed to defend our seminal national borders from hostile Indians and a major foreign power with which we had a history of armed conflict. Instability in that region of the growing country would, in part, lead to the War of 1812 just 20 or so years later.

If one wants to further explore the early Federal government's attitude towards armed citizenry- both rebellious mobs and organized militia- one needn't look much further than the Whiskey Rebellion. The latter case is the only one in our history in which a serving president has led troops in the field. In this case, none other than George Washington led federal troops and state militia to put down a rebellion of frontier farmers who didn't want to pay a federal excise tax on distilled spirits. Now tell me that the intent of the Second Amendment was to allow the common citizenry to oppose governmental tyranny.

Most Americans know at least a bit about the Revolution but they know very little about the formation of our early national government. For example, my high school juniors have never heard of Shay's Rebellion or the Whiskey Rebellion. Hence, the perpetuation of self-serving myths regarding the Second Amendment.