CMV: America is a country built on violence, and the 2nd amendment is a guarantee that violence will continue.

Hello all! To those who are new, welcome to the sub! I've been lurking and posting for almost a year now, and we've always had good discussions on here, so I'm looking forward to the awards show. I decided to go for something more controversial with this post.<br><br>The concept of change my view is built around the idea that we're all operating under a giant set of assumptions about how the world works. We all put weight on information that agrees with our worldview, and we try to find flaws in the information that doesn't. This is called confirmation bias. <br><br>In order to really *change someone's view*, it's important to challenge these assumptions. So I want to challenge one of the most fundamental assumptions that I think many Americans hold. <br><br>I think there is a fundamental flaw in the way that America has developed as a country. This flaw is present in the way we treat each other and the rest of the world, and it arises from the way the country was founded. The way we talk about the United States and the way we see our role in the world seems to be built on a massive lie. We talk about freedom and democracy like they're sacred things - we even go to war in order to protect these things, both in our own country and in others. However, I think that those kinds of words are empty when we examine the history of the US and the way that our democracy has worked, both in the past and today. <br><br>I believe that America is a country built on violence. I think that the US has consistently used violence to achieve its goals, and that this violence has been used disproportionately against non-white, non-male citizens. This means that the US - and the freedoms it has - was historically built on and is currently being upheld by violence. <br><br>One of the most obvious examples of this is the treatment of indigenous peoples in North America. The early settlers were violent towards the native inhabitants of the land, and this violence eventually turned into all-out genocide. It's estimated that between 1492 and 1691, the population of Native Americans decreased from 50 million to 5 million. Even if we assume that half of this population decrease came from disease, this would have translated to 5 million deaths directly caused by settlers. This is a staggering number of people to be killed, especially when we consider that this took place over less than two centuries. This didn't end when the US became a nation, as demonstrated by the trail of tears, when tens of thousands of Native Americans were forced to leave their homes and migrate to reservations. It's estimated that between 2,000-8,000 Cherokee died on this trail alone, and many thousands more died as a result of the forced migrations of other Native American groups. Today, Native American reservations are often lands that are inhospitable or poisonous, and lack access to clean water, good food, and many basic necessities that the rest of us take for granted.<br><br>The other obvious example is the way the US treated black people. In the early years of the US, black people were viewed as less than humans, and were treated as property rather than people. This led to widespread violence against black people, from whipping and cutting to hanging and burning at the stake. This violence didn't stop after slavery was abolished - rather, it simply changed forms. After Reconstruction, a long period called the Jim Crow era took place, where blacks were subjected to forced segregation and were often the victims of vicious lynchings. A quick look at this list of unarmed black people who were killed by police from 1999-2014 shows that this kind of violence is still going on today, where black people are disproportionately targeted, arrested, and killed by police. In fact, a 2015 report showed that police violence was the 5th leading cause of death for young black men in 2015 and 2016. <br><br>I'd also like to mention that these two examples are *not* the only examples. Women were also historically denied rights in the US. I think that the way the US government treated Communists can also be classified as violent. I think that the US's treatment of both Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its own veterans is violently abusive. I think that the force used by ICE to deport undocumented immigrants can be classified as violent.<br><br>So if we operate under the assumption that the US is a country built on violence, then I think we have to re-examine the 2nd amendment. The 2nd amendment explicitly states that people have the right to own guns. However, if we assume that the US is a country built on violence, then gun ownership *must* play a role in this violence. How can we say that guns aren't a big deal when mass shooting after mass shooting after mass shooting keeps happening? How can we say that there's no link between our culture of violence and our gun violence when the US has such a staggeringly high rate of gun-related deaths compared to the rest of the developed world? I understand that the argument is often made that a well-armed citizenry is the best defense against a tyrannical government, but I don't think that this is a good argument at all. If we accept that the US is a country built on violence, then I think it's clear that the US government *is* a tyrannical government. If that's the case, then the best way to protect ourselves from the government's tyranny would be to overthrow it. I don't think that this would be a realistic goal even if every single citizen was armed to the teeth, so I don't think that the 2nd amendment offers any kind of protection in this regard. <br><br>In conclusion, I think that the 2nd amendment is part of a long American tradition of violence. I don't think that there is any way to divorce our history of violence from our gun culture, and I don't think that the 2nd amendment serves as any meaningful protection against government tyranny. <br><br>If you can change my view, I'd be very happy! Thank you all for reading, and I look forward to the discussion this post sparks.<br><br>**EDIT:** Hey everyone. I'm putting this up here since I've gotten this comment multiple times and I want to address it. I am *not* advocating that we should repeal the 2nd amendment and round up all the guns. As stated in the post, I believe that the US is a country built on violence, and that the most violent among us are often those who hold the most power. I do not think that the government, an inherently violent institution, should have the power to take away guns.<br><br>So what should we do instead? Honestly, I'm not sure. This is a problem that I don't have answers to. I think the first thing that we can do is to start talking about gun violence more honestly. We need to have an open discussion about why these mass shootings keep happening, and how we can prevent them in the future. This probably means getting rid of assault rifles, which have been used in many of the shootings, but I'm not someone who knows much about guns or gun control. I know that's not a great answer, and I apologize for that. Honestly, I wrote this post because I don't have any great answers, and I'm worried about the future of our country, and I think we all need to start talking more about this problem. Thank you all for your thoughtful comments, and thank you to those who've upvoted this post.