Amanpour & Company- February 16, 2024

Dominic Erdozain interview. Author of:

ONE NATION UNDER GUNS

HOW GUN CULTURE DISTORTS OUR HISTORY AND THREATENS OUR DEMOCRACY.

Historian Dominic Erdozain argues that American founders never actually intended for gun rights to overrun every other right.

Erdozain is a Britain in America who studied the collateral effects of gun violence.

Erdozain- It is not just the physical fall out it is the psychological effect and what this does to the way we trust each other or interact with each other.

Armanpor- If the founding fathers had known what do U think they would have made it? That is a question of intent and the Second Amendment.

Erdozain- I think they, first of all, would be horrified, one of the things I have tried to do is approach the Second Amendment not just through the legal

angle but to understand how it fits into a vision of democracy…the extortion around the Second Amendment is a lot of issues- a well-regulated militia involves the principle of consent and collaboration and accountability and that is exactly what we now lack., individuals buying assault rifles for their own use are not part of a well-regulated militia, so we have drifted very far

from those moorings, although the number of gun owners are down, I think the number of guns in circulation has increased dramatically in the last 10 or 15 years.

 

Second Amendment U.S. Constitution

A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Arnapour – What did the founders mean by a well-regulated militia and then the rights of the people?

Erdozain A well-regulated militia is under the authority of the state if U look at the state constitutions from which the Second Amendment emerged, they talk very clearly about the militia and any armies that are summoned by Congress or summoned by the State must be under the authority of the civil power.

…One of my favorite sources for the book was Edward Kennedy who lost two brothers to assassins' bullets and he said: It is not just the pool of death that guns have created it is the appalling spectra of fear that guns have cast over our communities” and that is precisely the language of the founders is the language of the Architects of this democratic tradition and that is what guns are destroying on a daily bases.