Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: Would a "Repeal the 2nd Amendment" movement... [View all]discntnt_irny_srcsm
(18,479 posts)The Bill of Rights is a document that lists generic actions of individuals and specific protections of individuals in relation to our government. This list echoes the type of individual freedoms expressed in the Declaration of Independence. The BoR is a nationally foundational document. It is part of the Constitution because many people wanted it to be part of the Constitution. Some articles are there because of specific abuses by former government. A case in point would be the Third regarding the quartering of soldiers.
The 2A has been acknowledged to be an individual right. It is a consequence of the right to life in that it is a protection of the authority of an person to acquire and maintain a means of self-defense. Lots of people not just those of the political right will view your end goals with suspicion for suggesting a repeal. Any actions to that end will be utterly divisive, generally distracting and mostly counterproductive.
Assault is an attack on the life and freedom of another person. It's not wrong because there's law against it. There's a law against it because it's wrong.
Why blame the 2A for the ongoing problem of assaults in this country?
Why blame guns for the ongoing problem of assaults in this country?
IMO government exists to do for us that which we are unable to do for ourselves. By working together we become able to deal with and mitigate the sources of assault and abuse in society. Assailants are imprisoned and rival abusive or warring governments are deterred or dominated and disarmed. Our government helps in cases of natural disasters such as floods, fires and pandemics.
So how can government best help with the problem assaults and deadly attacks? Since most of these assaults and the most deadly of them involve guns, some folks have concluded that efforts to control who can acquire or keep a gun will have an effect. These efforts won't work, at least not with the sweeping visibility which proponents claim or hope that they will.
The 2A repeal is a hollow hope. It's not going to happen. There are exactly zero instances of changes to the BoR. You could point at a few instances of subsequent Amendments that expand the groups protected by the BoR but none of the Articles has been changed or removed.
There are many potentially productive things which can be done. Working to nullify the 2A is a hostility provoking distraction at best.
CDC data shows that the almost 38,000 people dying via gunfire represent a loss of over 900,000 years of human life. I think we owe political capital to actions that will best and most likely mitigate those numbers.