Commentary: The shameful history of the Second Amendment

A man holds a sign as he stands outside the War Memorial, near a group of Second Amendment advocates gathered in opposition to about a half-dozen gun control bills expected to get a vote in the Assembly on Monday, March 26, 2018, near the Statehouse in Trenton, N.J. (AP Photo/Mel Evans) In 1791, why was the Second Amendment thought necessary to help perfect the recently ratified U.S. Constitution? I suggest it was an afterthought to give assurance for ongoing white hegemony.

Many of the Founding Fathers were uncomfortable with a national standing army. They knew that the national government could build up a national army as needed, but they hoped it could be minimized in peacetime. They…