The
latest tragic school shooting in Georgia should focus attention on the
need to completely alter our gun laws. We hear much discussion of the
Second Amendment, but most of it is completely ahistorical.
When I was in law school, no one suggested that the Second Amendment
meant that anyone could purchase a military-style assault weapon. My
father was a businessman in New York City. He had a permit for a
handgun. To obtain this permit, he had to go before a judge to explain
his need for a gun. He explained that in his business he often went to
auction sales and carried $10,000 or more in cash with him. He was
granted the license. Now, our allegedly “conservative” Supreme Court
has ruled this New York law unconstitutional. In their view, almost any
regulation of guns violates the Constitution.
I
don’t know what Constitution they are reading. They claim to be
“Originalists,” seeking the original meaning of the authors of the
Constitution.
The very
first words of the Second Amendment are, “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.”
At
that time, we had no standing army. There was concern that England
might try to regain control. Now, a huge defense establishment has
assumed the role of the militia of 200 years ago.
Former
Chief Justice Warren Burger, a conservative Republican, has said that
since the reason the amendment was adopted—-to raise a militia—- is no
longer necessary, the amendment is obsolete. In Justice Burger’s view,
the sale, purchase and use of guns should be carefully regulated just as
automobiles and boats are regulated. Such regulations, he pointed out,
would not violate any part of the Constitution.
There
is nothing “conservative” or “originalist” about substituting the
wishes of the National Rifle Association and the gun manufacturers for
the literal words and meaning of the Second Amendment.
In
no other country in the Western world are schools dangerous places,
with teachers and students fearing for their lives. The grandson of a
good friend of mine was killed in the Sandy Hook, Connecticut school
shooting in 2012. Since then, there have been school murders on a
regular basis. Do our Supreme Court justices really think that the
framers of the Constitution mean the Second Amendment to promote the
mass murder of children?
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