In the wake of the the Mandalay Bay shooter’s massacre, I had to pause and ask myself if it might be worthwhile to restrict firearms further. It is hard to witness such carnage and not wish to prevent such things.
However much I might decry the murderous madmen that do these things, I keep coming back to the reason the Founders wrote into the Constitution explicit protections, including that for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (RKBA).
To say “People should not have military style firearms” is to the Second Amendment what “People should not be permitted to criticize the government” is to the protections of Free Speech written into the First Amendment.
Protection of speech, particularly political speech, is the reason that freedom of speech and the press as well as the right to peacably assemble are specifically protected by the Constitution. Who among us would stand up and declare that we should not be able to speak out against government? The first Amendment’s protection isn’t there just to protect stage plays and movies or concerts in the park. It’s there to protect, especially and particularly, political speech. Those other things are just along for the ride.
The Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear, specifically, military style firearms – suitable for militia service. That is why it exists. That is what the Founders intended. It is not about duck hunting or shooting paper targets at the range. It is not about recreational shooting (“sporting purposes“) and it is not limited to just personal defense. It is about keeping the country free – it says so right there in the Constitution.
In the 20th century, more than 200,000,000 people worldwide were killed by their own governments. If you think that such things cannot happen in the 21st century, you are sadly mistaken.
“It can’t happen here” is foolishness. History shows us that it can and does happen, and will happen again, unless we are wary and protect against it. A necessary precursor to genocide is disarmament. It can happen here if the people are disarmed. Why, oh, why would we want to establish a necessary condition (disarmament) that enables genocide? Even if it can’t happen here, why move us closer to that possibility?
If the last few decades have taught us anything, it is that government is out of control; it knows no limits and pays only lip service to Constitutional protections and limits on its power. It has weaponized federal agencies and uses them against political enemies. It snoops on everything. There’s probably some dutiful government agent reading this right now. It’s only going to get worse. Let’s not help make it worse by further infringing constitutionally-protected rights – Not free speech and not RKBA.
We should continue to fight tooth and nail to protect RKBA. And we should contact the NRA to holler at them for suggesting more infringements on RKBA even before any legislation has been submitted.