Do Americans have the right to own guns?

It should come as no surprise that my answer to that question is an emphatic yes. That’s made obvious — or should be — through the clear and concise wording of the Second Amendment. When the founders used the phrase “keep and bear,” the word “right,” and everyone’s favorite “shall not be infringed,” they probably thought that folks would continue to understand the simple meaning and intent of words as we as a society advance, get smarter and more sophisticated. But that’s clearly not the case.

One only has to wade through the cesspool that is Twitter to see how confusing simple language can actually be for some people. A recent example of this is seen over the confusion of synonyms for the verb “own.”

Below is a screen grab from an account I admittedly don’t follow and am not familiar with, but I understand he used to be someone. 

Yes, you read that correctly. He said the word “own” doesn’t appear in the 2A, nor is there a synonym for it. 

Hmm.

It seems that many people don’t have a clear understanding of the Constitution, what synonyms are, or what simple, commonly used words actually mean. So, it’s up to those of us who understand these things to help those who can’t. Or won’t.

Let’s break this down Barney style, as if talking to small children, shall we? Much of the rest of this article uses sources that most folks are familiar with, like a dictionary and a thesaurus. Our goal here is to define words so we can all get on the same page.

First, what is a synonym?

This first word can be a doozy for some. It has two “Ys” and two “Ns” in it for Pete’s sake. I can see this one being stumper for those folks who don’t deal with grammar on a daily basis, so this one’s a freebie.

Merriam-Webster defines the word “synonym” as such . . .

one of two or more words or expressions of the same language that have the same or nearly the same meaning in some or all senses 

What does the word “own” mean?

Once again, we go to Merriam-Webster for our definition of the word “own.” In this case, we’re looking at the verb . . .

to have or hold as property : POSSESS

What does the word “keep” mean?

I have to give it to Olbermann, the word “own” does NOT appear in the Second Amendment. He’s actually right on that one. However, the word “keep” does. So, just to be sure, let’s define the complex language used by our Founders when they penned that hard-to-understand document called the Constitution.

to retain in one’s possession or power

What is a synonym for “own?”

Since we’ve defined what the word “synonym” means, I figured it’d be a good idea to see if there were any for the word “own,” too. Because as Keith claims, there’s no synonym for “own” in the Second Amendment. To prove his point, we’ll head on over to Thesaurus.com. . .

Well, look at that. I guess the word “own” does have a synonym in the language of the Second Amendment. Who knew?

Conclusion

Both “keep” and “own” share a similar word in their very definitions: possess or possession. I’d begin to define it, but I think this horse has been well and truly beaten. 

This is nothing but a classic example of my facts don’t care about your feelings. And the fact is, as an American, I do have the right to own as many guns as I want to. Therefore, your feelings about my gun ownership don’t really matter. That can be very frustrating for big brains like Keith Olbermann.

So what’s next? Well, hopefully we can change the viewpoints of some of the ignorant. However, I suspect the gun-grabbers are hard at work trying to change definitions so they’re more in line with their anti-freedom agenda.

Only time will tell.