What If, 236 Years From Now... [View all]

[JFN1]

America still exists, and the 28th Amendment (ratified in, let's say, 2017) giving Americans the Right to own petroleum-fueled personal transportation conveyances (i.e., gas-guzzling cars), is giving those future Americans a whole bunch of trouble.

Since personal teleporation is available to all in the year 2248, having to maintain an expensive and unneccesary infrastructure for Americans who demand their Constitutional Right to own a car be honored, has decidedly become more and more problamatic. And then there are the accidents, and deaths, and pollution, and so many other bad circumstances the use of these cars bring about, which are really affecting everyone in the country, in one way or another. But the car owners appear to believe such negatives are acceptable over the absolute horror of giving up their car ownership rights and the legendary "freedom" cars purportedly bring their owners.

Now - do you suppose some of those future Americans up there in 2248 will be shaking their heads, trying to understand why their ancestors in 2017 fet it necessary to enshrine car ownership in the Constitution as a Right? They might distantly understand why owning a car was historically believed to be a life necessity, and from their perspective, for the people living in 2017 it very likely was a true necessity. But such understanding does little to explain why the Right to car ownership still exists for those future Americans.

And this illustrates the way a large number of Americans today feel about gun ownership as a Right...for were said ownership not a Right, but a privilage (just as driving is a privilage and not a Right), we might actually be able to have a reasonable conversation about how to deal with the very real problems the Constitutional Right to own a gun, creates for ALL Americans.