Keith Olbermann To Gun Owners: The Second Amendment Is About Gun Control

Keith Olbermann took on the debate about gun ownership in his latest YouTube video for ‘The Resistance’. Olbermann asked whether President-elect Donald Trump will be able to solve America’s gun violence problem. Olbermann then explained how the Second Amendment is a form of gun control.

Olbermann suggested that Trump will not be able to effectively tackle gun violence because he will try to exploit the issue by blaming Muslims, increasing his own power and avoiding any infringement of ‘the holy Second Amendment’.

He launched into an examination of the Constitution, noting how many times it referred to private property and ownership. Olbermann said the Constitution was basically a contract to deal with property rights and argued that, seen it that way, the Second Amendment was very different from the way the gun lobby represents it.

“‘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 infringe.’ Which one of those words means ‘own’ as opposed to ‘being given possession of’ and ‘retain’? None of them.” Olbermann said.

“The Second Amendment is there to keep state militias legally. Is does this by keeping legal the rights of private citizens bear arms for use in a militia. The Second Amendment guarantees the right to your state national guard. It doesn’t say a thing about prohibiting gun control. The Second Amendment is gun control.” Olbermann said “The Constitution starts with the idea that the government owns the guns. All guns.”

Olbermann went on to quote the late Chief Justice Warren Burger, an extremely conservative judge appointed by Richard Nixon, who wrote that the Second Amendment does not guarantee an individual right to own guns. Olbermann’s point was that if a traditional conservative jurist like Burger could interpret the Constitution that way, claiming the Second Amendment didn’t protect individual gun ownership was not an exclusively liberal argument.

You can watch below.