I’m tired of the same old, same old. I’m tired of second graders being killed in
their classroom and dancing young people killed in clubs. I’m tired of angry guys killing their
partners. I’m sick to death of strutting fools intimidating people with guns in
stores and on the street. And above all, I’m sick of ineffective discussion and
political inaction.
It’s time to think differently. Our right to bear arms is protected by the
second amendment. Fine. I’ve lived with guns. My father had a side arm; my husband had a
handgun, my significant other has a couple of guns. None of them walked around with them strapped
on in plain view. None felt the need for an automatic or a semi-automatic gun.
No one wants to eliminate the second amendment.
No one wants to go around collecting guns.
It is time to amend the second amendment for a new
generation of Americans. We are no longer a few colonies without a strong
national defense system. In fact, we
spend more than 50 percent of our national wealth on our military forces. We no
longer have need of militias, well-trained or not. If anything, our National Guard, Army
Reserves, and the rest of our armed forces reserve corps take the place of
citizen armies. That is not to say there is no place for an armed civilian.
The second amendment can still guarantee the right for
citizens to own guns. Not because we
need to protect our towns from marauding invading foreign armies. Not because we may need to rise up against
our own government (that was never the intent and should not be now) but
because we are a nation of farmers, sportsmen, mountain-dwellers, and
urbanites, all of whom may want or need a gun for perfectly legal purposes.
No one wants your guns!
What many of us do want is an amendment that reflects the
reality of life in modern day America.
There are no militias. We have
weapons of mass destruction, not muskets.
We want to feel safe in our public places. We want our children to be safe in their
schools. We want to dance and love and
shop in peace.
In the same way we want to keep alcohol away from children and
cars away from drunk drivers, we want to make sure that gun purchases are fully
vetted. And gun ownership must come with
responsibilities, such as insurance. Gun
owners should be licensed, insured, and subject to laws regarding the use of
whatever weapon they choose to own. And
we should not be selling weapons that are made for warfare. No one has need of grenades,
canons, rocket launchers or automatic weapons.
Let there be due process but let there also be common
sense. If one has a violent history, or has
criminal ties, severe mental illness, or has risen to the attention of national
security, that person should be either entirely restricted from gun ownership,
or be required to pass a higher level of competence to receive a license and
insurance. We take away the driving privileges
of repeat offenders. We should do the
same with gun ownership. It may be a
right, but we can forfeit our rights with our behavior, as do those who lose
their right to vote with felonies.
Our second amendment should continue to allow us the right
to bear arms but temper that, not according to colonial militias, but according
to real-time needs and modern sensibilities.
Specious arguments such as “It’s unenforceable because people will still
get guns” are to be ignored. We regulate
all kinds of behavior that despite laws is still practiced. We don’t make murder legal because we cannot
stop all murders. We don’t say
shoplifting is fine because people will still shoplift. No. We make common sense laws and enforce
them. We penalize those who break
them. We are Americans. We can do this.
