Rethinking The 2nd Amendment

The only gun I’ve ever owned was a short barreled shot gun Steve and I had when we lived aboard our sailboat. Knowing that drug runners were getting more aggressive, our plan, if ever needing one, was to blow a big hole in the other guy’s boat, preferably at the waterline. We were not going for finesse. I gave the gun to Patty and Mike during my divorce. I feared Stephanie getting hurt more than our being set on by any burglars. 

However, I have remained a supporter of the right of Americans to bear arms, unfettered, with the belief that we citizens would use that right responsibility. No more. We aren’t capable of it. Once again, a young man bought guns legally, then used them to mow down 19 elementary school children and 2 teachers. While he did this, the local Texas police dithered. I am not pointing a finger at the cops. The gunman had a plan; the officials could only react to his chaos. That is a recipe for failure.

The Republicans are saying it was mental illness, the Democrats are claiming this is lack of gun control. Yes, exactly, they are both right. What to do? Obviously, at least for the average American, we need to pay more money for treatment of our mentally ill: in patient, out patient, whenever and wherever. Yes, this will cost us, but the carnage of each of these mass shootings, and, for the matter, any shooting, also has a big cost. To be more than crass, we could actually put a price on it: figure the lost wages and taxes from these 21 victims, if nothing more. Surely that would have covered the expense of treating the gunman, even for his entire life. 

We also must outlaw automatic weapons. We’ve done it before, and it worked. Other countries have done it. The average American wants this. All we need is legislators with backbones to pass the laws we need. At every level: federal, state, local. No automatic weapons, nowhere, no how.

What am I going to do? First, find out what a membership in the National Rifle Association costs and donate that amount to the most anti-gun lobby group I can find. (Grant is shocked at my newfound stance. He has been anti-gun, actually I’m pretty sure, anti-2nd Amendment, since I’ve known him.)

Second, I’m writing my legislators, starting with my senators. No more automatic weapons. I am still an adamant torch carrier for our constitutional rights. I am just as angry that our right to live freely is being destroyed, piece by piece, by our elected officials selling their souls to the lobbyists.

And don’t bother trying to tell me the best guard against a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. That ship has sailed.