I blame the Monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey
It showed primitive people how to use a bone as a weapon. Things went downhill from there...
Posted on 02/05/2007 8:15:23 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
On New Year’s Eve, my friend and rowing teammate was killed by a gun in Dunbar. Regardless of who pulled the trigger, I blame the gun.
Guns were invented with the specific purpose to kill. People were not. Disturbed people pull triggers, but do not directly send speeding bullets through people’s skin and souls. My friend, University of Charleston alumna Lori Francis, is no longer living because she couldn’t stop the bullet that ended her life.
I wrote the Gazette in 2003 regarding a shooting at my graduate college, the Appalachian School of Law in Virginia. Ironically, I finished that submission two hours before I rode my bicycle toward my Lee St. apartment, past the Kanawha County Board of Education building, which was suffering after-affects of another school shooting. For the second time in two years, a former teacher of mine was shot.
I used to think school shootings followed me. But now, I realize that school shootings rather follow a national trend that shows no signs of slowing. It does not slow because the only solution is one that makes the most sense — but sounds the most ridiculous.
In my 2003 submission, I called for abolition of guns. I cited school and workplace shootings initiated by disturbed people, but concluded by bullets. I continue to call for the abolition of guns for the same reason that left my friend and her parents dead in their Dunbar apartment: Americans are in love with guns and are not brave enough to part with them.
The constitutionality of possible gun abolition would be an issue with many Americans who are law-abiding gun owners. But it is the courts that interpret the Constitution, not the popular vote. The Second Amendment states: “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.” In United States v. Miller, the U.S. Supreme Court interpreted this provision to mean that citizens do not have an individual right to bear arms unless they possess “some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia.”
In United States v. Warin, the Sixth Circuit provided more context to this interpretation, stating: “Since the Second Amendment ... applies only to the right of the state to maintain a militia and not to the individual’s right to bear arms, there can be no serious claim to any express constitutional right to possess a firearm.” Neither Miller nor Warin has been overruled.
My distant ancestor, Major Gen. Ambrose Burnside, was the first president of the National Rifle Association. Gen. Burnside would have liked Lori Francis. He would have liked her heart and passion. Gen. Burnside would not like, however, what his organization has become and what it promotes. The NRA was founded by some old Army officers disappointed by their soldier’s marksmanship skills. Its purpose was “providing firearms training and encouraging interest in the shooting sports.” It is now a gun-promoting juggernaut that appears to suggest that teachers should be armed to combat the growing number of school shootings. I don’t think my ancestor would approve of the NRA’s solution to stopping violence in America today.
In the late 1990s, you may have seen Lori Francis rowing on the Kanawha River. She rowed hard and never complained. She rowed on a lightweight crew but had a heavyweight heart. She rowed with a peaceful fluidity. Lori will never row again as her dreams were cut short because of a gun. In 2007, more innocent people like Lori will die in West Virginia because of other guns. There will be several school and workplace shootings in 2007. People will die in those shootings because of guns. As usual, no one with power and influence will offer any solutions other than arming more people with more guns.
It’s about time the coxswains of our government do something about the guns that are shooting holes in the boat they command, which we call America. As they continue to promote more guns for more crime, our vessel of prosperity and peace continues to sink. How much longer can stubbornness for a misguided view of the Second Amendment keep us afloat? Sadly, not long enough for our society to ever row like Lori did.
[Burnside is a trial lawyer in Cleveland. He graduated from the University of Charleston in 1999 and was an employee of the West Virginia Senate and Kanawha County Public Defender’s Office.]
Hopefully, most of the cops and troops will refuse to become JBTs, but if New Orleans is any indication, many will simply not question their orders and start kicking down doors. Sadly, I think "that time" is getting closer.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
If this limpdick does not like US guns, then he can get the hell out of the US!
Anything can graduate from law school. We need more engineers in government.
Jeremy sounds gay.
Did you note that becuase he is related to a Civil War general, he is an "expert" on guns.
I feel bad for anyone that loses a friend but lets also ask, what was his friend doing?
Was he just out for jog or was he trying to buy crack?
Was he armed himself?
I stopped right there!
Somebody tell Burnside it's a lack of self-control that kills. If not a gun, a knife, hammer or other weapon will be used.
Nice one!
I blame the Monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey
It showed primitive people how to use a bone as a weapon. Things went downhill from there...
"Guns are for hunting politicians, who through their tyranny steal your rights"
Abraham Lincoln
That would make a great tag line
I have a hang over today. I blame the National Football league and I blame beer!
I'm my own gran'pa?
Ahhh yes, I did a web search and found the photo below of Mr. Jeremy M. Burnside, Esquire (or is it a member of his firm?) consulting with one of his clients:
That's because you are an idiot whose let your emotions over ride any logic you may have possessed.
People like these are an active danger to society. Unable to take care of themselves, any perceived "threat" to them must be a matter for government control over others. The exact antithesis of the personal liberty and freedom this Country was founded upon.
All rational thought ended right there.
Burnside is a trial lawyer in Cleveland.
Makes you wonder how many murderers he got off on technicalities. If the scumbag who killed his friend was a former client of his, would he still be blaming the gun?
Poor Burnside is defenseless. Intellectually and physically.
Of course it does. Laws banning guns are the only laws which criminal do obey! Doncha know anything? ;-)
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