A Look At Gun Control and 2nd Amendment Reform
By Trevor K. McNeil
Still Echoing
The cycle has come back around again, and gun-control has returned to the sociopolitical forefront. Something that has occurred with increasing regularity since the beginning of the 21st century, starting with the Columbine shooting in 1999. A twenty year old tragedy that still has echos today.
Posting Memes
Both Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza and Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz posted memes related to Columbine massacre, before committing their own atrocities. The down time between mass shootings has been reduced from months, to weeks, to hours. The two most recent shootings in Ohio and Texas occurring on the same day. Something that has never happened before on American soil. It has gotten to the point that in the United States no one is safe anywhere. Not in church, not in school, not at the mall, not at a concert, not at a restaurant.
Efficient Means Of Killing
The main reason this is happening, and will continue to happen, is a lack of political will by law makers to devise meaningful reforms. Finding that ‘will’ seems is apparently hard. But we must find the will. We must make it more difficult for such crimes to occur by limiting access to guns. Death by gun is one of the most modern and efficient means of killing, on an personal level, ever devised. One such reform would be an extreme overhaul of unlicensed gun shows. Such unregulated gun shows are exactly how the Columbine shooters got the guns they used that fateful day, in April 1999.
Under Age
Despite that both shooters were too young to buy, or own a gun in Colorado, they were able to use a ‘straw buyer’ to get the guns at an unlicensed gun show. In December, 1998 several guns were purchased at an unlicensed gun show by the straw buyer. The buyer later sold the weapons to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, in spite of the seller knowing the boys were under the legal age. It is clear that if they had tried to buy such weapons in a licensed gun store they would have been turned away. If they hadn’t gotten the guns a lot of people would be alive today, including the shooters.
Gun Love
The gun love is so strong in some quarters, not even Democrats dare stand against them, even in terms of reasonable measures. Conor Lamb, as such, is a self-described “Pro-Gun Democrat.” It was that distinction that was key in his victory over his Republican opponent in 2018. It is a fact that gun law reform will be necessary if America is to slow the number of gun related deaths. Currently, the United States loses 40,000 people annually to gun violence. Many of these deaths are not mass shooting events, but rather domestic violence or suicidal actions.
Port Arthur, Australia
In 1996, the small bay town of Port Arthur, Australia was rocked by a mass-shooting that saw a record 35 people killed. This prompted the government to bring in some of the strictest gun laws the world had ever seen. As of 2017 the overall murder rate in Australia stood at 0.8%. And it really is not down to culture either. Australia has a criminal underworld just like every other country, though even the nation’s most famous gangster, the late Mark “Chopper” Read, was only officially convicted of two murders in his entire career, and only one of these was with a gun.
The Context Of The Argument
The key reason in this entire issue is the 2nd Amendment of the United States Constitution. The worship and adoration of the 2nd Amendment is a rather new thing. Today, many hold it up as sacrosanct, particularly the NRA. Many on the political Right believe the 2nd Amendment is unchangeable. While many on the Left regard the 2nd Amendment as stupid, dangerous, and out of step with modern times. Fundamentally, many candidates choose the side of the issue that they believe that best matches their constituency. More plainly, they will agree with their voter base, no matter what their party affiliation. What every body is seeming to ignore is the context.
An Anomaly
The 2nd Amendment is something of an anomaly in terms of constitutional law. I see several reasons for that. One reason, The 2nd amendment is unique. The 2nd Amendment does not easily meld with the other amendments. Most of the other famous amendments are built on the basic principles of liberty that go back beyond the founding of America to the likes of Jonathan Swift and Voltaire. Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Assembly. And later amendments addressing the female vote and equal rights were good ideas, that most people could agree on. As shown by the fact that there is a version of at least two of these amendments in the constitution of nearly every Western democracy from Australia to Austria.
Time And Place
The 2nd Amendment, was very much a product of its place and time. Specifically, a loosely connected group of 13 former British colonies, each with their own governing body and militia for defense, recently formed into a nation. Essentially they were trying to figure things out. They were finding their way to what it meant ‘to be’ the United States of America. We have to remember at the writing of the Constitution, muzzle-loaded muskets and volley fire were the height of military-grade weaponry. It was mutually agreed that for safety in a dangerous world the new states would be allowed to keep their pre-existing armed militia forces.
Efforts At Fire-Arms Regulation
Despite proclamations by important looking people, usually men in red ties, taken as written, there is nothing in the 2nd Amendment that prohibits reform. In terms of gun control legislation, it was in fact, the first attempt at regulation of fire-arms in the United States. There is no need for the 2nd Amendment to be revoked; or even changed in order for significant reform to occur on the level of individual gun ownership.
Volunteers
The 2nd Amendment really only makes it legal for an American citizen of the age of majority to join the
National Guard. The closest thing the modern world has to a traditional state militia, citizen armies, the
likes of which fought in the American Revolution, being outmoded the minute the United States formed
a professional, National army.
Stop Pandering And Lying
Gun regulations would be perfectly fine under the 2nd Amendment. There is nothing in the amendment than prohibits banning armor-piercing rounds, rapid-fire high-capacity weapons and bump-stocks for civilian. Also limiting the number of guns a single person can buy and the introduction of built-in trigger locks is important. All that is needed for change would be for politicians, particularly on the political Right, to stop pandering quite so much to the NRA and their Russian donors and stop lying about the true meaning of the 2nd Amendment.
***If you like this article please watch for an upcoming article on the The Role of the NRA in reshaping the vision of the 2nd Amendment. Also, another up coming article will look at the effect of DC vs Heller on the perception of the 2nd amendment.
