Posted on 02/23/2024 5:47:12 PM PST by DoodleBob
Get rid of the guns.
Change the U.S. Constitution, which we as a nation have managed 27 times already in this evolving democracy. Restore the Second Amendment to its original meaning — ensuring a well-regulated militia — and get rid of the guns.
Take deadly arsenals out of private hands, no matter the firearm. No assault weapons. No handguns. No rifles. Melt them down and throw them somewhere deep in the ocean.
Protect ourselves and our futures.
People will break the law, you say. That may be. But we continue to make crack cocaine and recreational fentanyl illegal. Republicans claim they want to bomb Mexico over opioid trafficking.
So pursue guns owned by individuals across this bloodstained nation with the same single-minded determination. Get rid of them, here and now, from everyone who would embark upon shooting sprees and those who fancy themselves responsible gun owners alike.
Owning a lethal firearm, however carefully, invites lethal violence. It increases the likelihood of death by suicide. It increases the likelihood that one day, sometime far in the future, you don’t behave quite so carefully and that gun falls into the hands of a toddler or criminal.
That’s all it takes.
I’m tired, bone tired, of watching children slain and adults’ bodies riddled with bullets. I’m tired of watching random people fall to a crazed attacker’s military-grade weapon. I’m tired of watching and waiting for the day when someone I know will meet their end.
This cannot be freedom. Freedom means freedom from random death, from the fear that your neighbors are accumulating arsenals of destruction that serve no other purpose than juicing their ever-dwindling supplies of testosterone.
You might assume I wrote the proceeding words after the mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, on Wednesday.
You would be incorrect.
I wrote the first section of this column (a few minor edits aside) nine months ago. That was after a shooter in the Dallas suburb of Allen, Texas, killed eight people and hurt seven at a mall. You’ve probably forgotten all about it.
Since then, the United States has endured 507 mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive. That database includes any event in which four or more people were wounded or slain, excluding the shooter.
I left the piece unfinished. It seemed too extreme to deploy such rhetoric about a shooting two states away. Soon enough, I told my editor, a shooting would take place closer to home and we could run it then. We shuffled our feet and changed the subject, not because my statement sounded extreme, but because it sounded inevitable.
The “debate” about guns, you see, doesn’t respond to impassioned words. It doesn’t respond to everyday citizens making their voices heard. It only moves, however haltingly, when those with firearms spill the blood of others.
So I waited, watched the months pass, occasionally passing the file while scrolling through notes on my phone. On Thursday, shooters at the Kansas City parade wounded 22 and killed one.
And here we are.
The founders designed our government to evolve and reshape itself as citizens and their representatives desired.
That’s why amendments exist in the first place. Hardcore conservatives assemble at the Kansas Statehouse every session to advocate for a “convention of the states” — an untested maneuver meant to make it easier to amend the Constitution. Liberals across the nation still harbor hope for enacting the Equal Rights Amendment to finally outlaw gender-based discrimination.
Folks from across the political spectrum don’t make these moves because they hate the country. They do so because they love it.
I don’t expect the Constitution to evolve overnight. But former U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens suggested just that in a New York Times op-ed shortly before his death. He had opposed the court’s ruling in 2008 that the Constitution guards an individual’s right to bear arms and lived to see the consequences.
Stevens wrote of repealing the Second Amendment: “That simple but dramatic action would move (activists) closer to their objective than any other possible reform. It would eliminate the only legal rule that protects sellers of firearms in the United States — unlike every other market in the world. It would make our schoolchildren safer than they have been since 2008 and honor the memories of the many, indeed far too many, victims of recent gun violence.”
I understand the deep hold that guns and gun culture have on people and their families. My grandfather owned several hunting rifles and left me $400 in his will to buy a gun.
I purchased a surround sound speaker system instead.
Listen, I don’t expect that the United States will ever ban the individual ownership of firearms. But those who value guns over the lives of children and their families deploy extreme rhetoric, while those who want peace and security for their families search for compromise where none can be found.
If those seeking a safer country shy away from speaking out, clearly and forcefully, change will never come. Not for children, not for their parents, not for any of us.
Get rid of the guns.
I think he stole Sally Jessy Raphael'a glasses, so more like 88 years old than 8.
Actually, FRiend, the history lesson was for Clay.
You can’t be on FR and not pass Constitution 101!
Watch a Colonial Williamsburg gunsmith make a gun:
It took the expert 6 days to make a barrel.
There is a book called “The Second Amendment Primer” by Les Adams.
Another gun grabbing Karen what a waste of air.
My heart brakes for the child. Prayers up.
Yes
Actually, the Supreme Court should rule at the second amendment protects Firearms from infringement. Clear the deck of all federal, state, and local laws. Then, if someone wants to regulate them, let them start with the constitution. With 27 or 28 states now constitutional carry, plus many states with second amendment style protections in their own constitutions, they will have a very hard and very long time to accomplish anything.
We are winning the debate...at least these leftards now admit that their only legal option is to modify or repeal 2A.
Good luck with that.
the best way to protect yourself, your kids and your family, get a gun. End of story.
The red glasses are a tell, along with the smug expression.
Clay doesn’t “sound” very gay. He sounds, rather, frantic and angry and in a manner that seems characteristic of flamboyant homosexual men. He is certainly not happy about the problem he perceives.
If all guns are bad, logic demands thaf we disarm all of government first.
After all, historical facts prove governments are the number one killer of people worldwide.
“And then there’s the whole ‘well-regulated militia’ bit.”
This stupid argument pops up frequently, as if these loons had a brainstorm and they’re to first to discover it. Even though it’s been raised and demolished many times for decades.
This way. Clay lives in Lawrence, Missouri with his husband and son.....
https://kansasreflector.com/author/clay-wirestone/
Personal Protection Comes from 911
Electricity Comes from Walls
Food Comes from Shelves
I have never done ANYTHING “for the children”. Nothing.
PROTECT OUR KIDS! leave out the gang banger invader drug dealers, rapists, racists and terrorists though
I did.
At Scout camp, we took the children to the range.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.