By John Lawrence
It has come to my attention that some of my conservative friends think that the American Constitution was chiseled in stone. Well, no, actually unlike the Ten Commandments which were written in stone, the American Constitution was written on parchment. I have a lot of respect for the Founding Fathers who came up with this document based on the best Enlightenment thinking at the time with the help of French philosophes such as Montesquieu who believed in the separation of powers and checks and balances. Unfortunately, the Founders didn’t heed the advice of the Marquis de Condorcet who came up with a better voting system than majority rule.
Condorcet and my other friends, Voltaire and Rousseau are entombed in the basement of the Pantheon in Paris where I visited them a while back and thanked them for their efforts in getting the fledgling United States off the ground. But speaking of being “written in stone”, did God really hand Moses two tablets or did Moses have a little workshop up on the mountaintop where he meticulously chiseled out the Ten Commandments?
If Moses had handed them out on a piece of paper to his constituents, they would have laughed in his face so he had to make them believe that they were inviolable because they came directly from a Higher Power. That vested them with considerable authority, much more so than if Moses had told his followers, “Here, follow these rules that I came up with for it’s really in the best interests of everyone concerned.” Human beings will not always do what is the best for everyone concerned as has been demonstrated time and again especially in the mass denial of global warming. Moses knew what he was doing when it comes to human nature.
But I digress. Whatever the case with Moses and the Ten Commandments, the Constitution of the United States was definitely created by Homo Sapiens. No one concerned believes it was handed down by God. So it represents the best thinking up to that time which was considerable. However, I think some of my conservative friends could really go for a rewrite to correct some of its obvious defects. Take the Second Amendment for instance. Now some on the left including myself would just leave it out entirely, but the right would probably seize the chance of a rewrite to strengthen it. You could just leave out all the nonsense about “a well-regulated militia” and just go for it – something like this:
New 2nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States: Every American citizen is free to buy, sell and own firearms of any description and any quantity without restriction.
Just think of how this would boost the economy. There would be such a commerce in firearms for people of all ages that guns would be as ubiquitous as smartphones or tatoos. This would add immeasurably to GDP. And the trick would be to come out with new models every year just like the iPhone. People would be induced through advertising to get rid of their old models in order to have the latest. Planned obsolescence would be built in as gun manufacturers planned a few years ahead to add enticing bells and whistles one step at a time.
Already pink rifles are being sold directly to little girls with blue ones reserved for little boys. The .22 caliber Crickett rifle is already being manufactured and marketed. Not only should the market be expanded more to little kids, but special models should be designed for senior citizens as well.
Every resident in the retirement home would be encouraged to own one because you never know when some nut would go in to these mostly unsecured facilities and start shooting. The senior citizen version could have a button installed on it: the Help, I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up button. That way there would be no need for any additional, superfluous medallions worn around the neck. The senior citizen gun would cover all the bases.
And speaking of unsecured venues where some nut might just go in with a load of guns and start shooting, there are a number of them that are just accidents waiting to happen. Take hospitals, for instance. There’s no security in most hospitals, no metal detectors. That’s why doctors and nurses should be encouraged to carry guns. Especially in the operating theatre the Doc should always have a sidearm as he performs surgery. Otherwise, the blood spatters might not end up being just those of the patient. We have already seen how unsecured churches, schools and movie theaters have interested twisted minds. Sports venues by now have been mostly secured with metal detectors, because it’s common knowledge that those venues attract a lot of gun nuts.
Of course, principals and teachers should be carrying guns. We’ve already seen what happens when some nut chooses to take out his anger on innocent school children.Along the same lines, no one attending a movie theater should do so without packing heat. Venues where people congregate are prime targets for nuts with guns which is their right as American citizens according to the Second Amendment as presently constituted. Librarians should also obviously be armed as libraries are an obvious place to mow down defenseless people and shoot up a bunch of offensive books at the same time.
If we are to have a revolution in gun ownership in order to eliminate senseless violence, gun manufacturers need to start getting creative about their offerings. Already video games offer 5-year-olds the thrills of vicariously murdering their enemies, but what if they had an actual AK-47 with associated software where you could hook it up to a computer or a Play Station or an X-box with a USB cord? Instead of using a joystick to murder villains and enemies, kids could use a real AK-47 in virtual reality mode of course. A switch on the gun would change between reality and virtual reality modes.
Also information could be wirelessly downloaded to compute the statistics of how many targets the kid had successfully vanquished. Kids could compete online with each one trying to outdo the other in the number of kills in real time. When the gun is taken out in the field, the flip of a switch would take it out of virtual reality mode and back into reality mode so that actual bullets could be fired. Here’s another idea: the gun could be fired automatically and remotely from a smartphone!
Guns could be a fantastic component of the Internet of Things that is now all the vogue. San Diego based Qualcomm is looking to be a major player in the Internet of Things that hooks up every household component and device to the internet so that it can be controlled from your smartphone. Guns should be a prominent part of the Internet of Things. myAK-47.com would handle all ancillary merchandise, such as bullets and ammo, which could be ordered from amazon.com and be delivered in two hours!
All the practice of using the gun in virtual reality mode would transfer directly to reality mode with kids developing sharpshooter skills at an early age. Then when they went into the Army, the task of training them to kill actual enemies would be a lot simpler. Some of those kids would have been training for ten years or more at home.
There is a slight problem in that some people would get to the point where they wouldn’t know the difference between virtual reality or fantasy and reality so that a few accidents might occur along the way where someone thought he was dealing with virtual reality and in fact the switch was turned the wrong way and the guy was actually operating in real world mode. That is always a possibility, but that is why everyone should be armed with several different types of weapons for several different types of situations. The gun manufacturers shouldn’t stop with selling just one gun to every American. There’s one gun out there for every American now. The US leads the world with almost one gun per capita. So advertising should be directed in such a way as to make every American a gun collector, not just a (single) gun owner.
There are some that decry violent video games as the source of narcissistic pleasure for those who seek to be famous by committing a violent act:
I’m horrified that Bryce Williams was live tweeting his own footage of his murders within minutes of the story hitting the headlines — that he waited to shoot himself until after his Twitter and Facebook accounts were suspended, that he very directly sacrificed others’ lives and his own for the immediate dopamine rush of getting hundreds of retweets.
I’m horrified that the video is still up and easily findable on Google. And I’m horrified that when I watched the video — I admit it, I’m human — it was shot to resemble the point-of-view of a first-person shooter video game.
I’m someone who loves social media, and who loves gaming. I’ve staunchly defended both in the past, and I would say the negative things about them are symptoms of broader negative social trends, not their cause.
But I can’t ignore anymore the toxicity that comes with the world of social media or that the gaming world is the birthplace of deranged social movement after deranged social movement — so much so that the biggest terrorist organization in the world, ISIS, uses video game tropes as a recruiting tool — and succeeds in getting Westernized middle-class teenagers to join up so they can feel badass.
Every place that people congregate is fertile territory for some gun wielding nut with a grievance against the world. That’s why Americans have to follow the Boy Scout motto, “Be Prepared.” We shouldn’t trust that there are any places that are safe any more. And statements like “No one saw this coming” or “Who could have imagined such a thing happening?” are ridiculous in light of the fact that we are averaging more than one mass murder per day in the US. Mass murders are commonplace. They’re as American as apple pie. Now they don’t even make the evening news unless they are really spectacular.
Of course, if I had my way, I would replace the Second Amendment, the Right to Bear Arms, with the Right to Have Health Care. It seems that some societies have gone that route – restricting gun ownership while providing free health care. Somehow that seems more decent, and gun homicides are a rare happening in those societies. Some people have even suggested that a high incidence of gun ownership is correlated with a high incidence of gun homicides. However, you can’t get around the fact that if everyone owned a gun, criminals would not be the only ones with guns.
John Lawrence
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As per usual cherry picked data thus presenting any statistical analysis or conclusions drawn there from absolutely worthless.
Like many of my conservative friends… surely this is a comment intended tongue in check, i.e. absurd. This is not unlike the liberal verbal ethos of the ’90s, i.e. claiming not to hold bias toward others.
However, as they are faced w/the reality of a reality full of divergent views from their own on any topic, the fierce liberal bias is easily seen, quickly sees the same bias, often irrational bias and refusal to accept or acknowledge validity of other views.
It would seem they are/were shocked to learn there are other quite plausible views out there besides their own. Being sufficiently human their reaction is often base, ugly, vial, violent, bullish.
I absolutely agree the U.S. Constitution is misunderstood and potentially misunderstood document. There are many reasons for this as simple as choosing not to deal with “sticky issues” choosing instead to push delicate issues off on future generations. It was a function of various paradigm shifts, i.e. enlightenment period. It was additionally perhaps a snobbish but nevertheless true concept… They wanted a Republican style Government to imply representative, but knew “the people” by and large had no concept of governance, at least as the Founder/Framers sought to create. Case in point, the populace in the US generally wanted to crown George Washington, King of their new country. One fact, giving realization the Articles of Confederation were insufficient for large scale governance.
The Constitution is a fine document. Argument, debate, discussion are all a welcome part of what makes the US Constitution successful. When hijacked by extreme entities whether right or left is introduction of reduced freedoms for US Citizens.
Given the diversity of population I rather think the US is or can be a remarkable country.
When the Executive branch has grown more heavily armed than at any time in civil governments history yet is unrelenting in attacking one of the 10 amendments making up the bill of rights including as a legal means of preventing the US Government from acting tyrannically toward the citizens it serves/leads.
Simultaneously, there is a high profile effort to kill the U.S. 2nd Amendment among the U.N., all three branches of the US government by progressives regardless of party affiliation. People say the U.S. meddles in other country’s affairs but this is fairly unprecedented in US History.
One can be fairly certain their combined desire is not to reduce gun violence given its statistical stagnation despite high profile nature and attempts to light a fuze. Finally, even when/where strict gun laws/prohibition exists, the wrong people always find a way to gain possession.
Your conservative friends… what will you think of next
I’d like to see a study comparing the percentage of gun owners who own pit bulls, compared to the percentage of the general public who own the breed.
I think you should explore the hypothesis you’ve put forth, due to the divergence in relevant factors it may be difficult to support yea or nea based on research of relevant data. I wish you the best in your endeavor. I have a bit of experience w/the scientific method and would be happy to assist though again, your variables are so divergent it will be hard to prove.
While ya’ll keep debating gun laws,a very kind mother once suggested that anytime my children are invited to birthday parties, etc. — for their safety I need to ask the parents if they own guns and, as the answer in the U.S. nowadays from my experience is usually ‘yes’, we have to ask to see that the guns are unloaded and locked away from the kids.
As a courtesy to parents, I pass this on to have us all be better aware.
Barb, excellent notion, you can request, the homeowner may or may not adhere to such request and you can decide whether this is sufficient cause to prevent your child’s attendance. At least it seems you recognize yours is a mere request of which the other homeowner is under no obligation to submit.
In all seriousness, it’s probably important to secure an obligation that all kitchen knives are removes/locked away, as anything that one child might bludgeon another with. Probably should seek similar agreements regarding garden utensils, carpentry and gas fireplaces.
As my dear Republican friend who lives in Singapore–an extremely admirable 1st world country where you get the death penalty for owning a gun–said to me once, kids (and adults) end up in the ER due to the mishaps of the many kinds of items you mention. Kids shot by accidental gunfire end up in the morgue.
That’s the beauty of a free society– people can make choices as long as they don’t initiate force or harm on one another.
A responsible gun owner makes it virtually impossible for kids to find, let alone handle their weapons during a party.
Brian,
Thank you for your comment. You said, “A responsible gun owner…” and that is part of the problem. And I think Gail Snoats (or whoever she is) said that the majority of crimes committed with guns are committed by unregistered owners.
So, I’ll take it that a “registered” gun owner is a “responsible” gun owner for the purposes of this discussion.
A big part of the problem is that the lobbying efforts of the NRA have made it so easy to buy a gun that anyone, including irresponsible people with intent to commit a crime with a unregistered gun once they have obtained one, can get one. And so they do. And they use it to commit a crime.
So, I ask again, is it any wonder that there is so much gun crime in this country?
While the majority of crimes are committed by unregistered gun owners, the majority of mass murders are committed by registered gun owners. The guy that shot the schoolchildren at Sandy Hook was a registered gun owner or at least his Mom was. The guy that shot up the movie theater in Aurora obtained his guns legally.
Check out the article in Mother Jones: A Guide to Mass Shootings in America which says the following:
“There have been at least 71 in the last three decades—and most of the killers got their guns legally.”
By the way Gale Snoats was a character in the movie Raising Arizona played by John Goodman.
Thanks John. I did not know that. So, one might conclude from this that it’s so easy to get a gun that even psychopaths like the 2 you mentioned can obtain a gun legally.
So, do you know who your poster by that name really is?
Whoopeee, now we know Gale Snoats can’t be righteously offended when we rip into that name. Snoats, did you ever stop to think that your chosen pseudonum is one letter off from Shoats, meaning “little pigs”? You could look it up. Come to think of it, Snoats, maybe you should look up Hamilton’s unsung amendment granting the right to rename oneself for purposes of haunting blog sites without risk.
I also looked up “snoat” in the urban dictionary. Here’s what I found:
snoat
(v) – to snort cocaine/crack off of a man’s erect penis.
I believe the 2nd amendment was intended by the framers to guarantee the people’s right to a well-regulated militia, which we certainly have (today’s armed services). I also believe the 2nd amendment has been systematically distorted by the gun lobby (the NRA in particular) to eliminate any sensible regulation on the purchase of lethal firearms resulting in the situation we now find ourselves in: namely, that any lunatic can buy a gun and kill someone. Is it any wonder then that the daily news lately has been filled with stories of gun violence. The NRA’s SOLE MISSION, may I remind you all, is to promote the sale of guns. They could care less who buys them; their job is to sell guns. Hence they have used and continue to use the considerable funding they receive from their clients, the gun manufacturers of America, to purchase influence in Washington to eliminate any an all regulation on the sale of guns, distorting the 2nd amendment in the process, so any lunatic with a few bucks can get him or herself a gun to make it easier to carry out his or her lunatic plan to do someone in. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve had enough!
Again, welcome to debate. The NRA isn’t the issue whatever it’s intent, underlying or not. Statistically few crimes including firearms are carried out by legal gun owners whether or not they are NRA members or not. Overwhelmingly, gun crimes are committed by
individuals who are not legal gun owners.
The fact the 2nd Amendment is included in the “Bill of Rights” the people’s protections against government strongly implies it is not indicative of the Federal/State military forces or the increasingly armed civil government.
Quotes from some of the Constitutional Framers…
“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
― James Madison, The Constitution of the United States of America
“The constitution shall never be construed…to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”
― Alexander Hamilton
“[The Constitution preserves] the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation (where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”
― James Madison
As w/all rights, the liberties set forth in the 2nd Amend is balanced by civil responsibility.
A lawful, gun owner is a far thing, NRA member or no, from an individual or mob who lawlessly preys on others in society. The problem isn’t guns, or man’s access to them, those who want them most, usually to do worst always find a way to obtain all the firearms they need.
I’m not a gun owner, however, I am an NRA member b/c I believe in the necessity of protection of the Bill of Rights, of which no amendment is more important than the other 9. It is widely understood once the 2nd is deemed more or less unconstitutional, it will blow the doors open on the remaining 9 protections the citizen maintains from government.
Anybody following legislation and EX’s will not the demise of civil rights for the citizen. The spying via Patriot Act renewed every year until the name was changed earlier this year. Currently, the Fed can come into your home remove from it what it pleases, it can detain citizens w/o charge, indefinitely, w/o concern for welfare or due process. This is windy for they can take and torture us. There is also the EX’s whereby U.S. citizens can/have been executed w/o due process.
I don’t think for a moment that militia’ w/semi autos, gangs w/machine guns or mobs with molotov cocktails can’t be swatted away by the Fed should it so desire. Nevertheless it is our right as U.S Citizens, a liberty balanced by responsibility.
Gale, you make some points worthy of discussion. But first, please tell us, is GALE SNOATS your real name?
I must say I too agree with much of this. I support the Might to Arm Bears. And let’s forget not the EX’s the famous person who said, “This is windy for they can take and torture us.” I think not for it was Gale Snoats.