Justice Correspondent Says Second Amendment Was ‘To Preserve White Supremacy and Slavery’

The Nation’s justice correspondent Elie Mystal argued the Second Amendment was only intended for preserving slavery and ending slave revolts.

The frequent MSNBC guest appeared on Peacock’s “The Mehdi Hasan Show” Wednesday to discuss the revived debate on the Second Amendment. Hasan noted that Mystal’s book, “Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution,” claimed that the “original purpose” of the amendment was about slavery.

“There was an original purpose to the Second Amendment, but it wasn’t to keep people safe. It was to preserve white supremacy and slavery,” Hasan quoted from the book.

Mystal explained further that the need for “a well-regulated militia” came only out of the desire to put down slave revolts.

“They said that they needed a Second Amendment because they needed the armed, disciplined, that was their word, militia to put down slave revolts. And they were worried that under the original Constitution, the federal government had all of the power to raise the militia. The southerners needed the militia to put down slave revolts because it’s a little bit difficult to hold people in bondage against their will,” Mystal said.

He added, “So you needed some military superiority and the Second Amendment was there to make sure that the states had the power to raise the militia on their own {snip} That’s why the white folks said it was there. {snip}”

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