The GOP puts gun rights above life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
While the pending leaked draft of a decision by the United States Supreme Court may well be really bad news for our citizens and democracy in general, it could benefit those unhappy about the use of guns to kill fourth graders, allow gangs to blow away rivals, murder spouses, rob stores, shoot large numbers of concert goers, and so on. The Court may hold soon that there is no constitutional right to “privacy” because it was not enumerated among the rights of the people in the 18th century.
The originalist’s interpretation of the text of the Constitution (i.e., it means what it says) is furthered bolstered by what Justice Alito termed history and culture of the country. The important history and culture at the time of the Constitution’s passage in 1787 didn’t discuss abortion. It also didn’t include modern medicine, the Internet, women voting, automobiles, and myriad other elements of 21st century American life. But oh well.
The full text of the 2nd Amendment says: “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.” So the initial clause, plus the obvious reasons based on American history and culture – which did not include decapitating 9-year-old girls with AR-15s – are reasons for correct interpretation of the 2nd Amendment.
Anyone with a 5th grade education, logical ability, and capacity to understand English can properly interpret this. If you want to keep and bear a gun you have to be a member of a well-regulated militia.
While pretending that they are doing society a favor by preserving the misinterpreted constitutional right to keep, bear, and use firearms, many Republican politicians put it above the fundamental rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The New York Times recently showed how common-sense gun laws might have prevented 35 mass shootings and saved 446 people.
This brings us to the NRA – a large part of what Joel Pett has aptly described as the murder lobby. The NRA leadership was not always in league with the criminal element in our society. The NRA president in 1934, during congressional hearings testified, “I have never believed in the general practice of carrying weapons. I seldom carry one. ... I do not believe in the general promiscuous toting of guns. I think it should be sharply restricted and only under licenses.” The NRA backed the Federal Firearms Act of 1938 and the Gun Control Act of 1968.
So what happened in the past few decades that transformed the NRA from an organization with lofty goals to the internally corrupt NRA leadership of today, that promotes the criminality with firearms that society grapples with every day? To understand this one can apply two dictums: “follow the money” and “pay attention to what they do, not what they say.” Gun manufacturers want to sell guns. They can create a market for them if people go around shooting other people. So the manufacturers support the NRA. The NRA then supports politicians who make lofty 2nd Amendment claims.
In 1937 the NRA was into promoting gun safety and training. Now it supports legislation to allow anyone – whether law abiding or not—to carry a handgun without license or training. (Here in Kentucky our legislature rescinded requirements for permitting and training to all citizens – law abiding and otherwise.) The transformation of the NRA was a natural byproduct of the manufacturers’ desire to sell firearms, regardless of the societal cost.
It is distressing to see the profit motive push the NRA to be an organization that that lobbies for preventing training, blocking background checks and red flag laws, preventing the use of computer databases to keep track of the carnage and to process firearms applications, selling guns at flea markets, giving 18-year olds access to military weapons, and blocking the placement of identifying information in gun powder to trace shooters. The NRA leadership promotes cop-killer bullets, ghost guns, high-capacity magazines, and bump stops. And our state and national legislatures bow down to it.
Most Republican politicians of today face a dilemma: Have concern for and act for the thousands of children, grocery store customers, concert goers, spouses, and others to be killed by guns OR pretend to pray about the atrocities that their policies create, while reaping the profits from the sales of hundreds of thousands of guns. Apparently, it’s not a hard choice if you have no moral standards and your primary goal is to stay in power.
Assuming that the three Trump appointed justices are not just lying political hacks, put on the Court to destroy Roe v. Wade, (an assumption that, admittedly, strains credulity) and that they are sincere in applying the concepts of “Textualism” and “Originalism” to the Constitution in the matter of keeping and bearing arms, the amount of gun violence and mass murder should go down appreciably as militias are formed – governmentally or corporately – to accommodate lawful gun owners while putting criminals out of business.