I made a wisecrack right after the Boulder shooting that maybe we should just have a feature, Mass Shooting Of The Day, and unfortunately, we’re not that far off in reality. It’s not mockery anymore, it’s the way things are. There was a shooting at a shopping mall in Omaha on Saturday, Indianapolis was Thursday, and today there is a shooting in Austin, Texas, a state whose governor wants to declare it a “gun sanctuary state.”
This is in the past hour. It’s shortly after noon Pacific Time as I write.
UPDATE: Active Attack incident in the 9600 blk of Great Hills Trl; To this point #ATCEMSMedics have obtained Deceased On Scene pronouncements of 3 adult patients. This is still an active scene, please continue to avoid the area. More to Follow…
— ATCEMS (@ATCEMS) April 18, 2021
NEW: Here is a look at the scene. pic.twitter.com/LvwlEn5DYj
— Tony Plohetski (@tplohetski) April 18, 2021
Because frankly it doesn’t put them in danger. On average 50 police are killed every year over the last 10 years. That’s about 40% of the number that were killed in the early 1970s. All “homicides” are WAY down since 1993 except for cops killing citizens.
— Joe Mandt (@jmforge1) April 18, 2021
I asked this guy for a link to his stats, but even if they’re not accurate, the fact remains that America has reached a terrible tipping point with respect to gun violence and police violence.
Step one is to stop gun fetishism. The 2nd Amendment is not what’s at issue here. What’s at issue is that mentally ill people are getting their hands on assault weapons, because they can, and nobody is safe. This isn’t an occasional explosion in our culture anymore, this is daily reality. This is over the top.
Let sane people be able to have 1 hunting gun OR a regular hand gun- no assault weapons. 2 amendment is satisfied!!
All this talk about the second amendment and everyone seems to forget the rest of the words. A “well regulated militia”. I don’t know of any actual government organized militias. They don’t need them, as we have a huge standing Army, National Guard units. I heartily agree that weapons of war do not belong on our streets or in the possession of civilians. I don’t believe our police want to face semi-automatic weapons in the course of doing their jobs. I suppose exceptions could be made, for example a person that hunts wild boar, but only under strictly controlled conditions.
Your main point is well-taken. The point and rationale for the second amendment is the ready availability of a militia for defense of the state. In the English of the day, the meaning of well-regulated meant well-supplied in this context, not government sponsored or organized. At the time, the US government had no intention of mounting or maintaining a standing army, (although they gave up that intention rather quickly). The intention was that the citizenry would BE the standing army, and not only that, but they would also supply their own gun. The second amendment became mostly obsolete not long after the Bill of Rights was ratified.
The Supreme Court chose to ignore “a well regulated militia.” But as below, I see no reason why civilians need automatic weapons. Competitive shooters rely on skill, as do hunters. Limiting the type of weapon permitted still let’s private citizens own a gun.