Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann (Twitter)

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 somewhere at some time. 

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.

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61 COMMENTS

  1. On the behalf of their beloved Gun Control another high and mighty democRat assumes they have grounds to dissect the Second Amendment.

    What a Gun Control worshipping democRat doesn’t say, won’t say and will never say is, “History Confirms Gun Control in any shape, matter or form is an agenda Rooted in Racism and Genocide.”

      • Debbie constantly posts this video as proof her racist rants explain how to fight/win against the gun grabbers. She is too dumb to understand the main point of Roy’s speech.

        The very first words out of congressman Roy’s mouth talk about Federalist 46. Fed 46 mentions how America is different than the countries of Europe where governments don’t trust their people to be armed.

        The reason Nazis were able to disarm the German population (The same in the Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, etc.) was because there was no belief in the God given right to self protection or a Constitution that guaranteed people the RTKABA. Not a right given by the government, but a human right not recognized outside the United States.

        Chip Roy mentions slavery and how gun laws discriminated against blacks.
        And yet at no time does he say Americans have gun rights because of genocide in other countries, or the past history of slavery in the U.S. He says Americans have gun rights because they are endowed by God, enumerated in the Constitution and are the foundation of liberty.

        The 2A is uniquely American because we are the only country that recognizes the tyranny of an oppressive government and the right of the people to remove it. Roy talks about the tyranny of taking away that fundamental right.

        It is stupid to believe any court battles will be won screeching about slavery or what other countries without 2A protections did in the past.

        Courts will judge future attempts at gun control based on the Constitution, not what Hitler, Mao, or Stalin did decades ago.

        • That is not the point. Gun CONTROL laws have very clear racist antecedents. The Second is not a gun control law, no matter what some idiot left wingers have posited, i.e., that the Second was enacted to assure continued dominance over the black race.

      • Debbie, has Congressman Roy sponsored or co-sponsored any significant pro-gun legislation during this session of the House?

        He talks the talk — does he walk the walk?

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  2. Most of these anti-gun folks don’t know very much about the gun issues, never look at readily available stats to see what it looks like on both sides of the issue like the simple reality that far more good guys with guns PREVENT crimes, violence, shootings, injuries and deaths by having a firearm than the types of shootings they seem to dwell on. They also ignore the spikes in violence primarily in blue cities where most of these events occur because of Democrat policies including defunding the police and going easy on criminals. They support illegal immigration which brings in unvetted illegals a significant number of whom are criminals, drug and human traffickers. It was OK to allow unvaccinated illegals to come into the country and be bused all over to infect us but many USA citizens were forced to get vaccinated and now many of them are dying from those unsafe shots. As most of you know the author is correct when it is pointed out that you should just ignore them because they offer no intellectual or other logical explanation for their arguments. Its like an incompetent like Jill Biden who was given her Doctorate which has no intellectual quality whatsoever and then demanding she be called Dr. Jill. The British did the correct thing and put her in the last row as a reminder how really unimportant she is.

    • dprato,

      “Most of these anti-gun folks don’t know very much . . . “.

      You coulda dropped a period right there, and saved yourself a lot of typing.

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  3. English Bill of Rights (1689): “That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law.”

    American Bill of Rights (1791?): “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 infringed.

    The English colonies in North America lived under English law. The founding fathers said exactly what they meant. Note well the last four words of each ‘Right’.

  5. It’s only 23 words long for a reason. It uses the simplest, most succinct language for a reason. Because authors wanted to keep a bunch of neerdowells from messing with it.

    • Huntmaster,

      And I agree with you, but . . . how’s that been workin’ out for us?

      The 2A is, and has been, the most abused and trampled part of the BoR (other than the 10th, which is totally ignored). And it is the ONLY one containing the phrase “shall not be infringed”.
      The 1A makes do with “Congress shall pass no law” (notice, MajorLiar, there is nothing in there saying Congress cannot honor religion, observe religion, be a member of a religion, or even use a religion’s ethical precepts to inform its making of laws of general application), but only the 2A has “shall not be INFRINGED”. And for halfwits like MajorLiar, the definition of “infringed” is quite broad:

      “in·fringe
      verb
      past tense: infringed; past participle: infringed
      actively break the terms of (a law, agreement, etc.).

      “making an unauthorized copy would infringe copyright”

      act so as to limit or undermine (something); encroach on.

      “his legal rights were being infringed”

  6. It doesn’t matter.

    No matter how long we continue to explain the reality to them , they will insist it isn’t so.

    And, as we all know, “Repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth”.

    (An actual murderous fascist in the 1940s)

    That’s the reality we are forced to deal with… 🙁

  7. What gives? I thought we wrote this guy off, as well as the horse he rode in on, a long time ago. Don’t give him any more relevance.

    • hawkeye,

      I prefer to think of it as Queef Olberdouche having written himself off. He spoke his idiocy in a manner worthy of MajorLiar – but he did it on TV. He’s been fired from every job he’s ever held – now that he’s “working for himself”, I wonder how long it will take Queef to fire Queef.

      Look at his numbers – NOBODY pays attention to that clown. At least the Young Turks have captured an audience of fellow uninformed idiots; Queef can’t even manage that.

  8. What Keith needs to do is man up!.. he needs to come out and say that to the wrong person’s face.. then he will have a very bad day.. I would love to be that person..

  9. Olbermann might have been a newsman once upon a time, but he’s caught terminal TDS and completely lost his mind over the past few years. The guy makes Alex Jones look like a sober even keeled newsman.

  11. keith olbermanns whacking material/america is 1935 germany now:
    DHS Producing Videos Teaching Citizens How To Identify “Radicalized Conservatives”
    America First Legal (AFL) has obtained documents through FOIA request from the Department of Homeland Security which outline a “Choose Your Own Adventure” style video series that DHS intended to release to the public.  The videos were meant to depict different scenarios in which citizens might encounter potentially “radicalized” individuals.  Citizens are then asked to choose what they think should be done about the encounter. 
    Most of the scripted scenarios showcase people with conservative beliefs and values as the radicalized threat.  For example, the DHS targeted “suburban Moms” with pro-life beliefs….
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/dhs-producing-videos-teaching-citizens-how-identify-radicalized-conservatives
    the dhs is doing this for the express purpose of getting us to insurrect so they can invoke the insurrection act and take away all our guns and throw us all in detention camps
    >but theres no way that elements of the us government/deep state conspired with the ccp to launch a bioweapon on america disguised as an accidental lab leak on the world so vote by mail could become the law in 5 swing states to steal the 2020 election from donald trump
    even though thats EXACTLY WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE

    • Fauci will never be treated as the absolute evil mother fucker that he is. He is on video stating almost as fact that there would be a pandemic during the Trump presidency.

      • “He is on video stating almost as fact that there would be a pandemic during the Trump presidency“

        well you know, it was kinda easy to predict:

        “WASHINGTON (AP) — Public health and national security experts shake their heads when President Donald Trump says the coronavirus “came out of nowhere” and “blindsided the world.”

        They’ve been warning about the next pandemic for years and criticized the Trump administration’s decision in 2018 to dismantle a National Security Council directorate at the White House charged with preparing for when, not if, another pandemic would hit the nation“

        https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-ap-top-news-virus-outbreak-barack-obama-public-health-ce014d94b64e98b7203b873e56f80e9a

        “The Directorate of Global Health Security and Biodefense was disbanded under Trump’s then-national security adviser John Bolton. But Trump didn’t fire its members. Some resigned, and others moved to different units on the National Security Council…”

        https://www.kff.org/news-summary/usa-today-fact-checks-claim-trump-fired-entire-nsc-global-health-unit/

        The pandemic occurred on his watch, he’s responsible. Especially considering his conversations with Bob Woodward where he admitted he intentionally downplayed the pandemic and did not warn people of the severity.

        • It was on bidens watch. The afghan fiasco. But you blamed that on Trump also. Trump lives in your or your handler’s mind rent free.

          As for the ‘pandemic’. My sister had a stroke. Rushed to the hospital she died. Her official cause of death was covid. Which was bullshit.

          I’ve heard too many other such stories and having experienced it myself I have no doubt they are at least true enough to warrant an investigation.

          But you took your 30 pieces of silver from soros so tells us again, Orange Man Bad.

        • “The pandemic occurred on his watch, he’s responsible.”

          President Biden may not recall what he said during a 2020 campaign debate last fall, but Americans should: “Anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as President of the United States of America.” At the time the U.S. had recorded 220,000 Covid deaths.

          Covid deaths this year have now surpassed the toll in 2020 with 350,000 since Inauguration Day. It would seem that Mr. Biden has done no better than Donald Trump in defeating Covid despite the benefit of vaccines, better therapies, and more clinical experience. The left politicized Covid by holding Mr. Trump responsible for a disease that was always going to be hard to defeat. — https://www.wsj.com/articles/bidens-covid-death-milestone-biden-administration-trump-11637708781

        • “The pandemic occurred on his watch, he’s responsible”
          Are you fucking serious with this bs?
          President Obama supposedly put a stop to this “gain of function” research and Hitler 2.0 ignored him (meaning Fauci) if you want to play stupid. I’ve never said this before Miner because I never put you on the same level as dacian and that fucking moron All Hail also known as Albert. FUCK YOU!

        • MajorLiar,

          COOL STORY, BRO!!!! Now do how those SAME WARNINGS were ignored by the Obama/Biden, and the relative number of so-called “COVID deaths” under the “Biden” administration as compared to Trump.

          If you ever have anything to say other than “Republicans bad, ALL Democrats good!!!” – nah, I wouldn’t be interested in your incoherent babble, even then.

        • MINOR Miner49er. So what? When the “shi* hit the fan, it seems you Leftists did everything you could to exonerate your Red Chinese allies. When it counted, Trump admitted his error and did what he could but was thwarted by you and your so called “progressives” (should read REGRESSIVES.)

    • well,…Jane Fonda said covid was a “blessing”….so draw your own conclusions

  12. kieth olbermanns head just exploded:
    US Prohibition Against 18-to-20-Year-Olds Buying Handguns Tossed
    Bernie Pazanowski
    Reporter
    Right to purchase guns protected by Second Amendment
    Young adults are ‘the people’ under the amendment
    The US government’s prohibition on 18-to-20-year-olds buying handguns violates the Second Amendment and “cannot stand,” a federal judge in Virginia ruled.

  13. Olberman impresses me more when he’s mad and drives his point home with foul language.

  14. The first amendment doesn’t list computers or television under freedom of speech either. Should we limit such to only dip pens and manually set hand operated printing presses? Or the literal soap box or tree stump in the town square? Next is the claims that the Founders and Framers of the Constitution only knew about single shot muzzle loading muskets and rifles. But Jefferson sent a repeating rifle along with the Lewis and Clark expedition. It was a clumsy air rifle and a pain to charge the air tank, but was powerful enough to bring down elk. The Framers also knew about breech loaders and pepper box type firearms as well.
    No, the Second Amendment is very simple and very clear in the respect of firearms ownership. As are the rest of the amendments in the BOR.
    For someone who is supposedly well educated and should be capable of understanding plain language Mr. Olbermann surely can’t be as ignorant as he appears.
    Maybe he would like voting rights restricted as some of the Founders did. Only land/property owners could vote. or only those who can pass a literacy test should vote. Wonder if he would go for those ideas.
    Rather than fixate on the hardware, why not deal with the 1 thing every violent crime has in common. A human hand and a human mind.

    • me thinks we may need to go back to only land owners can vote. might be a good idea to have a literacy test also.
      or how about having verified ID that proves your a US citizen? and a basic understanding of english

    • i grew up with a shakir ramaswami. anyhoo, our current ramaswami introduced a going nowhere bill to raise the voting age to 25 (some exceptions). along with repealing the 19th amendment we could get some stuff done.
      good theatre, makes a point… he ain’t all bad.

  15. Hey man you can’t be stealing my term “breakin it down Barney style”. I’ve never heard anyone use that term exactly like I have for the last 10-15 years. I knew I should have copyrighted it. At least your not a Democrat, so I’ll let it slide.

      • one of a handful of childrens shows my chilluns were not allowed. bob the builder (one of the truck was afraid of the dark), caillou (straight whiny), dorka the explorka.

    • So you’re the fucking bitch reminding me of that purple fucking thing that is supposed to be a what the fuck? Give me your address John you fuck!

    • I actually first heard it all the way back in 1999 in USMC basic training. The DIs used to tell us they’d break it down Barney style. I’ve been using it since.

      ~ Josh

  16. Not owning a gun is an interesting concept. It doesn’t mean I can’t keep and bear one. I just don’t have to pay a gun shop before taking possession. Don’t know how they would pay the distributor for it and the distributor the manufacturer. Maybe the government would pay for it.

  17. UUUUH I CAAN’T READ THA CONSTITUTION WHAAAT DOES I MEAN …
    O NEVER MIND JUST CLEAN YOUR OWN , OWNED GUUUN , IN BEEE HAPPY .
    YEP COMMON SENSE , NOT VERY COMMON .. IDIOTS STILL FOLLOWING
    D.a J.erk tRUMP , Me2 guy? … TALK ABOUT TALKEN IN WALKIN SB … MAGA FULL OF IT …
    Me A Great Assiehoooo … Me2 …DJt … jerk meoff 2 …
    O NEVER MIND …
    I GOT MORE CONCERNS THAN TO CARE ABOUT THAT OTHER GUY … Me2 …

  18. This dude is T R I G G E R E D!

    “…It wouldn’t do you any good…”

    Lets compare the number of times a gun is used in a criminal manor, vs the number of times it’s used in a defensive and justified manor. No? Drink your warm milk and go to bed, titty baby.

  19. I posted two replies to Keith Olbermann’s tweet on Twitter.

    1) It’s hard to believe you became a journalist without knowing the definition of “synonym” and without having access to a thesaurus. The 2nd Amendment LITERALLY contains a synonym for the word “own.” That synonym is “keep.” If you owned a thesaurus or knew English, you’d know this!

    2) Poor Keith Olbermann can’t afford a thesaurus and doesn’t understand basic English, so he has no idea that “keep” and “own” are synonyms. Literally. If he had a thesaurus, he could look it up, but he’s not a real journalist, he’s an entertainer. Buy him a thesaurus, please!

  20. For an easy, basic understanding of what “keep and bear arms” means, read Heller. Thesauraus.com ain’t the authority here. You don’t even have to the whole thing, just a few paragraphs and footnotes. The idea that “keep” doesn’t mean “own” is preposterous. There is case law and common law going back centuries demonstrating that “keep” means “own.”

    One example from a 1730 casebook on the civil laws of England: “Those are guilty of publick Force, who keep Arms in their Houses, and make use of them otherwise than upon Journeys or Hunting, or for Sale…”

    How do you sell arms if you are not the owner? Technically, you can sell something you steal. But even then, at the time of the sale, you are the owner in the eyes of the buyer, but this is clearly not what the law then meant.

    If “keep” doesn’t mean “own”, then it must mean something else. Therefore this clown must find the legal/historical precedents for “keep” to mean “rent” “borrow”, whatever. And guess what? That evidence doesn’t exist.

    Keith Olbermann is a perpetually angry, stupid person.

  21. I’ve heard of Stegosaurus’s but I’ve never heard of a Thesaurus. How much of the skeletal remains were left and where did the archeologist discovery it?
    I’ve nary a use for a dictio. However if I ever need one I could possibly find myself spellbound.

  22. lol, Keith is a clown. His unhinged political rants play a distant 2nd fiddle to the likes of Rachael Maddow.

  23. I mean if we want to play the semantic game then let’s talk about the “well regulated militia” part. To me the second amendment starts and ends at protecting yourself against government tyranny, not bringing a Glock into Kmart.

    • Neighborhood,

      ” . . . not bringing a Glock into Kmart.”

      OK, but . . . what if I have to defend myself IN a K-mart?? Having the right to keep and bear arms means I get to take them wherever I think I might want/need them. Sure, if K-Mart prohibited guns, I would abide by their decision – and never enter one of their stores again.

      Curious what you think is “libertarian” about you deciding where I should be entitled to defend myself.

  24. Poor Keith, like so many Leftists, he has a reading comprehension problem.

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