Nation's gun cancer spreads

Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | May 3, 2010 | Patrick Walsh

[Second Amendment First]

After graduating from college, I served four years as an infantry officer in the Army's 25th Infantry Division. I fired everything from 9mm pistols to .50-caliber machine guns, routinely qualifying as "expert" with an M16A2 rifle.

It's not despite such experience, but precisely because of it, that I think the availability of guns in America is stunningly negligent public policy. And it may get worse.

One needn't be a constitutional law scholar to discern the Founding Fathers' intent in the Second Amendment. The original draft presented to the first session of the first Congress read: "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person." (The emphasis is mine.)

Clearly, the framers placed the right to bear arms within the context of organized military service. They wished to highlight the distinction between state militias and the federal army. They viewed state militias as a check against the misuse of the army to impose centralized tyranny.

Even the treacherous, 27-word version of the amendment with which we contend today retains and begins with the phrase, "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state ..."

Scientists talk about gene "expression" when referring to how the inherited instructions of our DNA are converted into working proteins in our bodies - an interpretive process. With interpretation can come error, and serious errors in gene expression can lead to diseases such as cancer.

America has a cancer originating in the misinterpretation of our government's DNA, the Constitution. In 2008, the Supreme Court handed down an erroneous interpretation of the Second Amendment in District of Columbia v. Heller, striking down a handgun ban in Washington and endorsing the misconception that individuals have a right to own firearms. Now, in McDonald v. City of Chicago, the court could compound the error by striking down a Chicago gun ban, extending the principle beyond the District of Columbia.

The old gun lobby claim "guns don't kill people" is specious. No one rails against the manufacture of axes or baseball bats; there are no campaigns to ban Bowie knives.

With a bolt-action rifle and a telescopic sight, I could put a bullet through my neighbor from a hundred yards away as he crosses his living room. With a Glock 17 pistol stashed in my briefcase, I could enter a boardroom, coolly dispatch a dozen executives, and still have five rounds left to deal with the security guards.

To put it another way, Virginia Tech doesn't happen if Seung-Hui Cho is brandishing a sword. Columbine doesn't happen if Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold are wielding Louisville Sluggers. Charles Whitman doesn't kill 14 people at the University of Texas at Austin if he takes up his sniping position armed with a longbow.

Take it from a former soldier: A gun's power is arbitrary and wildly disproportionate to its price, size, and ease of use. Before the advent of firearms, becoming dangerous meant years of training, if not membership in a warrior caste. Cho simply used a credit card to pay $571 for a Glock 19 and 50 bullets.

A Glock 19 weighs less than a quart of milk; it measures under 7 inches long. Its operation is simple: load, point, shoot 15 times, reload. In one span of nine minutes, Cho killed 30 people and wounded dozens more.

I once carried a rifle in defense of the Constitution. Now I wield a pen and must trust the adage about its superiority. But I admit to feeling outgunned by madmen like Cho and the Supreme Court justices who think more guns are the answer.

Patrick Walsh is a writer who lives in Princeton. He served as a rifle platoon leader, battalion adjutant, and company executive officer in the Fifth Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment.

[Second Amendment First]

One needn't be a constitutional law scholar to discern the Founding Fathers' intent in the Second Amendment. The original draft presented to the first session of the first Congress read: "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person." (The emphasis is mine.)

Clearly, the framers placed the right to bear arms within the context of organized military service.

Poet=creative use of words

Patrick Walsh

Patrick Walsh

• Princeton, NJ 08540
• E-mail: pdwalsh67@hotmail.com

• Web site: www.patrickwalshpoetry.net

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Author's Bio

A 1989 graduate of St. Bonaventure University with a B.A. in history, I served four years as an infantry officer in the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

I received a Master's in Anglo-Irish literature from the University of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland in 1997.

A lifelong runner, I've completed over a dozen marathons, including eight consecutive Boston Marathons. My best effort to date was a 290th place finish (out of 18,000) at Boston in 2004.

I live, write, and run in Princeton, New Jersey.

Publications and Prizes

Journals:

Barrow Street, Christian Science Monitor, Chronogram, Cimarron Review, College Green, Hudson Review, Poetry New Zealand, Press, Quadrant, Spitball, The Malahat Review, The Recorder, THE SHOp, U.S. 1

Personal Favorites

What I'm Reading Now:

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck, Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire

Favorite Books:

At Swim-Two-Birds; Down and Out in Paris and London; Dubliners; Good-Bye to All That; The Grapes of Wrath; In Search of Lost Time; Lolita; The Lord of the Rings; Moby Dick; Molloy; The Picture of Dorian Gray; War and Peace; Ulysses

Favorite Authors:

Samuel Beckett; Robert Frost; Robert Graves; Ernest Hemingway; Friedrich Holderlin; James Joyce; Philip Larkin; Vladimir Nabokov; Herman Melville; Friedrich Nietzsche; Flann O'Brien; George Orwell; Marcel Proust; Henry David Thoreau; William Shakespeare; Wallace Stevens; John Steinbeck; Jonathan Swift; J.R.R. Tolkien; Leo Tolstoy; Walt Whitman; Oscar Wilde; William Butler Yeats

[Clemenza]

Patrick Walsh is a writer who lives in Princeton. Speaking as someone who recently lived in Lawrenceville a half-mile in from the Princeton Township line, that should tell you all you need to know about Paddy Walsh. Princetonians may not smell like Berkelyites, but they are mostly leftist moonbats nonetheless.

[edcoil]

How did he do this? Four years of college then becoming an “officer” - what program is that? OCS? Then leaves the military to go back to college

“A 1989 graduate of St. Bonaventure University with a B.A. in history, I served four years as an infantry officer in the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

I received a Master’s in Anglo-Irish literature from the University of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland in 1997. “

[steve8714]

The “original draft” was rejected.

[caver]

If Patty Boy here wants to be defenseless, then fine, but leave the rest of us alone. It’s clear this fool wouldn’t defend his own family.

[facedown]

With a bolt-action rifle and a telescopic sight, I could put a bullet through my neighbor from a hundred yards away as he crosses his living room.

Not much skill there.

[Howie]

He obviously never read the Federalist Papers.

[Ouderkirk]

Second Amendment protections were put in place so that citizens could shoot operatives of an oppressive government, not deer.

"Never Forget, even for an instant, that the one and only reason anybody has for taking your gun away is to make you weaker than he is, so he can do something to you that you wouldn't allow him to do if you were equipped to prevent it."

- Alexander Hope

[jessduntno]

“To put it another way, Virginia Tech doesn’t happen if Seung-Hui Cho is brandishing a sword.”

It also don’t happen if someone pulls out their Glock and caps your sorry ass.

[stefanbatory]

So he’s pontificating based on the fact that he has fired guns before...

I suppose that makes him an expert among leftists...

[Still Thinking]

In 2008, the Supreme Court handed down an erroneous interpretation of the Second Amendment in District of Columbia v. Heller

I agree! SCOTUS was FAR too wishy-washy in Heller.

The old gun lobby claim "guns don't kill people" is specious. No one rails against the manufacture of axes or baseball bats; there are no campaigns to ban Bowie knives.

MORON! That's the point the "gun lobby" is trying to make!

With a bolt-action rifle and a telescopic sight, I could put a bullet through my neighbor from a hundred yards away as he crosses his living room.

You need more range time.

[Joe Brower]

Well, all this does is prove that military service is no guarantee against being a sheeple. One doesn't have to be a "constitutional law scholar" to see that this sap is just another brainwashed sheep, ready to allow the acts of criminals determine the rights allowed the law-abiding.

[rarestia]

Would love to get some info on his time in the military. I always call to question the auspices of military service when someone goes directly against the enumerated rights put forth in our Constitution.

The Second Amendment was the only thing keeping us from becoming a tin-pot dictatorship under FDR, and it’s the only thing keep Obama in check right now. As soon as they call for confiscation and registration, the gloves are off!

Patrick Walsh, you are a disgrace to the uniform, and you should be ashamed of yourself for writing this dispicable piece!

[Future Snake Eater]

Take it from a former soldier: A gun's power is arbitrary and wildly disproportionate to its price, size, and ease of use.

Take it from a current Soldier: you're a pussy. STFU and good riddance to any of your type who ETS. We're always better off without you. Now take GEN Casey with you.

[Repeat Offender]

Aren't we glad the libs control the univesities and we require officer candidaes to have college degrees? This way we can enusre an officer corps of f'n idiots.

When I think of this guy, I think of the idiot Lt that went chasing the scout in the movie "We Were Soldiers."

[VeniVidiVici]

Clearly, the framers placed the right to bear arms within the context of organized military service.

Clearly the framers intended for the Bill of Rights to pertain the individual citizens of the United States - their inalienable rights - and not some collective to operate on behalf of the United States.

I suppose the author would also say that the First Amendment is only for the free speech of authors who write for news organizations.

[Right Cal Gal]

Notice also, that his first words are to say he was “in the military.”

Then, clown, you should know the different between a standing army and a “militia.”

Also, since you did your service, apparently, in Hawaii and not exactly in Gulf War I, I would suggest we have just about the same basic experience — firing weapons at targets on a range.

Remember Patrick - “when seconds count....the police are just minutes away.”

[Tallguy]

My reading of the 2nd Ammendment is that the armed citizenry must exist BEFORE you can have a militia. That is the way the Ammendment is worded. It’s ironic that some of the most educated people can’t tell the difference between restrictive & non-restrictive clauses.

[wardaddy]

So he’s a smart liberal elitist who actually was in the military.

He can room with George McGovern and others.

[MrB]