Sunday, 28 December 2014 07:32
What country fetishizes, lionizes, valorizes, idolizes, and sacralizes guns as much as does our United States? OK, possibly Mozambique — the only country with an AK47 on its flag, but really, it's long past time to end this obsessive "My Precious" attachment of Americans to instruments of death.
This morning of Dec. 25, 2014, of the nine top stories from US Reuters, six were about shootings — four new ones and two about the national movement against shootings of citizens by police. This pandemic of sick violence, punctuated by mass killings of children, has gone on far, far too long. It is long past time to repeal the stupid Second Amendment.
The fate of the Second Amendment should have been sealed when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that past rulings by their predecessors were wrong, that in fact the amendment that provided for a "well regulated militia" really guaranteed every individual the right to own a gun. Wow. That is an interesting reading of the English language. What the Supremes have done is to not only warp the meaning and make it into twisted law, but to further prohibit states and local governments from declaring their places free of legal guns. The conservative court once again rules against the power of states, a principle that used to be associated with darn liberals who wanted to make sure everyone had the right to vote, for example, even though they weren't properly white enough. Now when a city or state wants to outlaw firearms, too bad. The conservatives took away their powers and rights in favor of Big Brother.
The only logical path, given the clearly decided role of the Second Amendment, is to repeal it. American people are tired of mass shootings and police shootings and family feud shootings and sibling shootings and accidental toddler shootings and teen suicide by gun (highly popular).We are exhausted by the proliferation of death, of threats, of bloodshed, and by the NRA/gun industry moral garbage spewing forth every time someone challenges the ubiquity of guns.
Repeal the Stupid Second Amendment. Surround it, grab it, bring it in the back room, pull down the shades, and end it. OK, petition for it, get it on the ballot, and get it done by enough of the US populace, by enough people in enough states, to get it consigned to the dustbin of history.
Tom H. Hastings is PeaceVoice Director and teaches in the Conflict Resolution program at Portland State University in Oregon.Copied in its' entirety from the Wisconsin Gazette.
OK. Let's dissect this.
"What country fetishizes, lionizes, valorizes, idolizes, and sacralizes guns as much as does our United States? OK, possibly Mozambique — the only country with an AK47 on its flag, but really, it's long past time to end this obsessive "My Precious" attachment of Americans to instruments of death."
Americans are not obsessed with guns. Even the "gun nuts" like me are not obsessed - we have full lives outside of our hobby. The persons with the obsessions are those like Mr. Hastings who haven't a clue about history or our country's origins, or freedom for that matter.
"This morning of Dec. 25, 2014, of the nine top stories from US Reuters, six were about shootings — four new ones and two about the national movement against shootings of citizens by police. This pandemic of sick violence, punctuated by mass killings of children, has gone on far, far too long. It is long past time to repeal the stupid Second Amendment."
A bit of fact-checking - the Washington Times reports:
Washington, D.C., surpassed 100 homicides for the year in the course of an unusually violent Christmas Eve in which five people were killed — including one by police after he opened fire on officers.The nation's capitol is a perfect example of a place without the Second Amendment. The "lawmakers" there have tried for decades to keep the population of Washington, DC unarmed - except for the police and, of course, the criminals who ignore inconvenient laws .
"The fate of the Second Amendment should have been sealed when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that past rulings by their predecessors were wrong, that in fact the amendment that provided for a "well regulated militia" really guaranteed every individual the right to own a gun. Wow. That is an interesting reading of the English language. What the Supremes have done is to not only warp the meaning and make it into twisted law, but to further prohibit states and local governments from declaring their places free of legal guns. The conservative court once again rules against the power of states, a principle that used to be associated with darn liberals who wanted to make sure everyone had the right to vote, for example, even though they weren't properly white enough. Now when a city or state wants to outlaw firearms, too bad. The conservatives took away their powers and rights in favor of Big Brother."
I have to agree with the first sentence - after the 2008 ruling, ALL gun laws in America should have been declared null and void, as they are all in violation of the Second Amendment. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court chickened out on calling a spade a spade and allowed room for "common sense" gun control.
The "well regulated militia" clause is there as a reason that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed - not the fact that a militia needs to be "regulated" in what arms it might bear. At the time of the Revolution, cannons were WMDs and were owned by private citizens, who organized artillery militia groups. Private citizens also operated naval ships. The modern equivalent would be fighters and bombers and whatever ammunition they require.
The Constitution was put in place to limit the power of first, the federal government, and secondly, the power of the states, to enact laws infringing on the rights of the people, from whence all power flows in our country - at least, that is how it was supposed to be. The Supreme Court has ignored thousands of instances of federal and state overstepping since 1776. They almost got the 2008 ruling right.
It's interesting that he mentions voting rights and liberals in the same breath - the "liberals" were the ones fighting desegregation in the 1960's right up until LBJ made his famous "we'll have those "n****rs" voting Democrat for the next 100 years" comment - at which point they were all for the idea.
I wonder if this goofus has even heard of George Orwell. It's obvious he has no idea who "Big Brother" was.
"The only logical path, given the clearly decided role of the Second Amendment, is to repeal it. American people are tired of mass shootings and police shootings and family feud shootings and sibling shootings and accidental toddler shootings and teen suicide by gun (highly popular).We are exhausted by the proliferation of death, of threats, of bloodshed, and by the NRA/gun industry moral garbage spewing forth every time someone challenges the ubiquity of guns."
How about some statistics?
Mass shootings are comparatively rare in this country, and are overwhelmingly committed by "liberal" leaning persons.
The NRA is not the "gun industry".
A perfect solution to violence is to disarm the innocent. This idea alone ought to cause his employers in Portland to fire him for abject stupidity. He's probably tenured, though.
"Repeal the Stupid Second Amendment. Surround it, grab it, bring it in the back room, pull down the shades, and end it. OK, petition for it, get it on the ballot, and get it done by enough of the US populace, by enough people in enough states, to get it consigned to the dustbin of history."
Let's do that. And then we can see how much you like living under the real "Big Brother".
Luckily for America, the people evidently have seen past people like Mr. Hastings, as polls now show a majority of people are in favor of a truly liberal interpretation of the Second Amendment - just like it was meant to be read.
