by A.J.(Tony) Powell
“The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution”.
It was pseudo-celebrity, ‘Joe the Plumber’ who once wrote, “Your Dead Kids, don’t Trump my Constitutional Rights!”
The 17 murders at a school in Florida has started another barrage of hysteria in the media.
It’s about a year since a gunman executed 49 people and wounded 53 others in Orlando.
The Columbine shooting at a Colorado high school was back in 1999.
In Northern California a gunman killed four people and injured three children.
About the same time 26 people were killed and 20 injured in a church in Texas.
In Las Vegas a gunman killed 59 people and injured 500 others.
The list goes on (and on).
A poll taken after the Las Vegas shooting claimed that over 60 percent of Americans want gun control. After the 2012 killing of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the Florida Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence was created . Five years later their leader said, “Yes, I’m angry; yes, I’m tired,” She wasn’t asked what she has accomplished for all the time and money spent. Apparently, rallies are being organized in and around Florida, with some of the victims taking a trip to the state capitol The Florida Democratic Party chair Allison Tant said she will help send “busloads” of students to Tallahassee to “protest the state’s gun laws”.
Many blame the National Rifle Association (NRA) because they gave Presidential Candidate Donald Trump, (and others) about $31 million towards his election campaign.
The 27 words of the Second Amendment say:- “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”. As recently as 1991, former Chief Justice Warren Burger said “The idea that the Second Amendment recognizes an individual right to gun ownership is ‘a fraud’ on the public”. But a 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment confers an individual right to keep and bear arms, and that banning handguns or even requiring guns to be disassembled or locked away violates this right. Some say that the 2nd amendment “openly refers to “Militias” – trained bands of people under local (state/county control. Others say, that the Second Amendment, bans infringement on an individuals right to own, carry and use the weapon of their choice, anywhere, any time.
It has been pointed out that all of the ‘Amendments’ in the ‘Bill of Rights’ are individual rights and “to keep and bear arms” is no different. But it might be reasonable to ask why it is that a 19 yr old can buy a semi-automatic weapon, but not a pint of beer!
As I See It, all aspects of life, even in a free country, are regulated. You can buy a car, but need a license to drive it. You can ‘live-in-sin’, but need a license to marry. You can buy some land, but need a permit to build. Why is it that the Republican-dominated White house bans guns. Congress bans guns, The Senate bans guns, State Capitols ban guns? But they want guns in schools? If these protesters want to get noticed, they might take their guns to the Capitol and see how far they get.
Why not ask your elected politician. “How is it that I can’t bring my gun to your workplace. But anyone can bring theirs to mine?”
[email protected] ’til next time . . . .
