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.]
This author proves he's an idiot in the second sentence.
Pretty much. Let me know how it works out!
That's because you're an idiot.
People kill people.
Some of them use guns.
The only situations in which guns are deliberately used to kill people, are when the perpetrator is doing something totally inappropriate. Deaths from guns from non-deliberate accidents are unfortunate, but a vehicle jumping the curb and killing a pedestrian is also unfortunate.
“Perhaps, we should require insurance for handguns. If liability insurance were required to
purchase and own a handgun, you better believe that the insurance industry would
promulgate a pretty rigorous licensing and purchasing process to control the risk.”
Regardless of who pulled the trigger, I blame the gun.
Burnside is a trial lawyer in Cleveland
Burnside is a complete moron in Cleveland. Here you have the mindset of the anti-gunners exposed. They've been quiet for the last 13 years or so, but now that their allies are back in power look for more and more of this idiocy to get Mainstream press exposure as the totalitarians in the MSM start the drumroll for their agenda - one part of which is total and complete elimination of all firearms except those in the hands of the police and military.
I wonder if this hypocrite has the sign that says no guns in this house, please don't hurt me on his lawn. I would guess not.
"Or a 4x4 pick-up with a rack full of guns and one in the glove box?"
You would need an old Priest and a young Priest...That is just pure evil.
Ban guns so that they can't hurt anyone, but legalize dope so everyone can get it...oh, but that does make sense...
If you ban guns, then when people get wacked out on drugs they won't have a gun to kill anyone! NOW I SEE!!!!
With the possible exception of some recent relocatees from California.
:^)
I fear that these people will cause another civil war. They do not realize the extent to which their ideas divide us.
Abraham Lincoln
Hmmm, concidering Lincoln was shot . . . Was this quote the correct choice?
I questioned all my guns before buying them---they all had NO Murderous intentions.......
He did design and manufacture a rifle that was used extensively by the North in the war.
A prophetic and ironic choice of words.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
I join the chorus of.......Jeez, what an abject moron.
Did this guy's parents spend ANY money on his "education" at a university?
What a waste. Someone who might have gotten a real education could have sat in that seat for 4+ years.
Sure would like to know what kind of work this guy is looking for or what he does. I don't think I would ever want to be his employer. He is a loser from the moment his eyes open every day.
Maybe he also thinks a cop shouldn't have a gun. Then when he is in danger from a criminal with a sharp knife or razor, he can expect the cop to be unable to do anything to save him. He is stealing oxygen someone else can do something with, IMO.
OOOOPs: I read to the bottom and found that he is a trial lawyer. He carefully doesn't ID what kind of trial lawyer.
In any event, he is a loser, IMO. He should be going after the person who used the gun and go after them for many years of incarceration.
Only because the sheeple choose to believe what the judge says, yuo as a juror can decide for yourself if the law is just or not, and there is no penalty or crime for rendering a not guilty verdict in any and all cases.
"the citizens rulebook"
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