How State and Federal NICS eliminate the 2A

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One thing we're seeing with State shut-down of Bureaus of Criminal Records and related background checks, is the effective elimination of people's ability to legally purchase firearms in many States.

Additionally, the sheer demand of background checks has overloaded several States' ability to conduct the checks, effectively eliminating purchasing options for the people attempting to purchase firearms from their local FFLs.

This whole experience serves as an example of why background checks, NICS, and all the layers of counter-Constitutional laws undermine the intent of the Founders.

Considering that some police departments are announcing that they will no longer respond to certain felonious behavior because they are infected too, one starts to appreciate the pure nature of the 2A before it was violated with the:

* race-based laws post-Civil War,
* race-based laws passed in gangland cities during Prohibition to handicap rival immigrant gangs,
* the 1934 FDR Administration's massive overhaul of the 2A to eliminate purchase and possession of most useful arms for the militia,
* the 1968 Gun Control Act,
* the 1986 Ban,
* 1989 import ban,
* the 1994 AWB,
* and the subsequent NICS and State BCI background check laws.

The "pure nature" of the 2A has never actually existed. Even when the 2A was enacted, it was being violated by the Founders themselves, with laws prohibiting the vast majority of black people from keeping and bearing arms.

Nor do background checks and NICS undermine the intent of the Founders. The intent of the 2A was to ensure that members of State militias had access to the weapons they were required to own under the Second Militia Act of 1792. Since criminals would not be desired in a State militia, requiring background checks to purchase militia weapons is compatible with the Founders' intent.

The 1934 NFA and the 1986 machine gun ban would violate the intent of the 2A, were it not for the fact that the State militia system was superseded in 1903 by the National Guard, which provides all required weaponry. Since there is no longer a Federal mandate that militia members provide their own weapons, and indeed privately-owned firearms are prohibited for military duties, NFA restrictions and the ban on machine guns are no impediment to modern militia duty.