Last week, we had yet another shooting. This time, the shooter was a disgruntled former employee of a news station, and his wrath was unleashed on an innocent cameraman and a reporter. The whole thing was caught on camera, multiple cameras in fact, as the cameraman kept rolling, and the killer himself captured the entire scene on his iPhone. Both are readily available to see, both are incredibly hard to view.
So what do we do now? After the movie theater shootings in Louisiana, Governor Jindal proposed putting metal detectors in movie theaters. We already have metal detectors in schools, in airports, court houses, and many other places. So, are we now going to put metal detectors just… everywhere? Are we still going to so willfully ignore the truth of the matter; that this country has a problem, I’ve said it too many times that I am exhausted with myself for having to write this out once again. We have a major problem with guns and gun violence in this country. Problems that simply don’t happen in other majorly developed countries. You can find one or two incidences, but compared to America’s weekly (and growing) shooting records, they pale in comparison to our own.
Mention the words ‘gun control’ and everyone loses their minds about the government coming for their constitutionally given firearms. “We have rights!” they cry, “You can have this rifle when you pry it from my cold, dead hands!” notorious NRA spokesman, Hollywood heavyweight, and ironically, dead actor Charlton Heston once said. To these people, I ask this; how many children’s cold dead hands, who have never had the chance to hold the hand of their first love, or to ever hold a diploma in their hands, or to ever do countless things for the first time; where is their justice? Metal detectors? That’s the justice for the now hundreds, thousands of kids who are killed every year by gun violence? That’s just taking into account school shootings and accidental deaths, hence keeping the concentration on the kids; what about the college student who will never get their degree, or the theater patron who never got to see the movie they were so excited about? What about the bystanders, unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, who will never see their home or families again?
Where is their justice?
“In order to keep and maintain a militia, the rights of the people to have and bear arms shall not be infringed upon.”
That is the text of the second amendment. Notice that the first part, about the militia, gets skipped over a lot when the amendment is discussed. It’s become “OUR RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS!” when it was actually “our right to keep and maintain a militia.” Militia is defined as “a military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army in an emergency.
• a military force that engages in rebel or terrorist activities,
• typically in opposition to a regular army, all able-bodied civilians eligible by law for military service.
Our founding fathers were giving us the Constitutional right to maintain small armies to either back up our nation’s forces (like they did in the Revolution) or to turn against them and re-establish America as it is meant to be (which is really beginning to be a needed thing). The second amendment is our right to revolution and insurrection.
I’ve also made the point before about the vast difference between military hardware when the second amendment was written and military hardware now. The one volley of bullets every five minutes does not compare to being able to fire thousands of rounds per minute, raining down death and destruction in ways that would have broken the Founder’s hearts.
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have both spoken heavily on enacting harsher and stricter gun control laws, but the GOP remains mum on everything. Open Carry movements are becoming more common, and getting scarier as they go by for the people around that aren’t comfortable seeing five random people carrying heavy assault weapons through a Ross Dress For Less.
Once again, I’m calling for change. I can’t stress the “once again” part enough, as it makes me want to vomit that I’m having to do this again. We have to change things. No one wants to come and drag your guns away, but we need the ‘cold, dead hands’ to stop. All of them. There are too many, have been too many, and are going to be too many more until something real is done, legislation is laid out, and change is truly made.
In Regards To Guns…. Once Again
Dane La Born
Last week, we had yet another shooting. This time, the shooter was a disgruntled former employee of a news station, and his wrath was unleashed on an innocent cameraman and a reporter. The whole thing was caught on camera, multiple cameras in fact, as the cameraman kept rolling, and the killer himself captured the entire scene on his iPhone. Both are readily available to see, both are incredibly hard to view.
So what do we do now? After the movie theater shootings in Louisiana, Governor Jindal proposed putting metal detectors in movie theaters. We already have metal detectors in schools, in airports, court houses, and many other places. So, are we now going to put metal detectors just… everywhere? Are we still going to so willfully ignore the truth of the matter; that this country has a problem, I’ve said it too many times that I am exhausted with myself for having to write this out once again. We have a major problem with guns and gun violence in this country. Problems that simply don’t happen in other majorly developed countries. You can find one or two incidences, but compared to America’s weekly (and growing) shooting records, they pale in comparison to our own.
Mention the words ‘gun control’ and everyone loses their minds about the government coming for their constitutionally given firearms. “We have rights!” they cry, “You can have this rifle when you pry it from my cold, dead hands!” notorious NRA spokesman, Hollywood heavyweight, and ironically, dead actor Charlton Heston once said. To these people, I ask this; how many children’s cold dead hands, who have never had the chance to hold the hand of their first love, or to ever hold a diploma in their hands, or to ever do countless things for the first time; where is their justice? Metal detectors? That’s the justice for the now hundreds, thousands of kids who are killed every year by gun violence? That’s just taking into account school shootings and accidental deaths, hence keeping the concentration on the kids; what about the college student who will never get their degree, or the theater patron who never got to see the movie they were so excited about? What about the bystanders, unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, who will never see their home or families again?
Where is their justice?
“In order to keep and maintain a militia, the rights of the people to have and bear arms shall not be infringed upon.”
That is the text of the second amendment. Notice that the first part, about the militia, gets skipped over a lot when the amendment is discussed. It’s become “OUR RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS!” when it was actually “our right to keep and maintain a militia.” Militia is defined as “a military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army in an emergency.
• a military force that engages in rebel or terrorist activities,
• typically in opposition to a regular army, all able-bodied civilians eligible by law for military service.
Our founding fathers were giving us the Constitutional right to maintain small armies to either back up our nation’s forces (like they did in the Revolution) or to turn against them and re-establish America as it is meant to be (which is really beginning to be a needed thing). The second amendment is our right to revolution and insurrection.
I’ve also made the point before about the vast difference between military hardware when the second amendment was written and military hardware now. The one volley of bullets every five minutes does not compare to being able to fire thousands of rounds per minute, raining down death and destruction in ways that would have broken the Founder’s hearts.
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have both spoken heavily on enacting harsher and stricter gun control laws, but the GOP remains mum on everything. Open Carry movements are becoming more common, and getting scarier as they go by for the people around that aren’t comfortable seeing five random people carrying heavy assault weapons through a Ross Dress For Less.
Once again, I’m calling for change. I can’t stress the “once again” part enough, as it makes me want to vomit that I’m having to do this again. We have to change things. No one wants to come and drag your guns away, but we need the ‘cold, dead hands’ to stop. All of them. There are too many, have been too many, and are going to be too many more until something real is done, legislation is laid out, and change is truly made.