First of all, we should all recognize Martin Luther King Day, the day that honors a great patriot and man who contributed so much to realizing the American ideal that “all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights”…   Such an extraordinarily powerful concept those two centuries ago, and such a painful and tragic struggle for a man as he tried to bring that vital concept closer to reality almost two hundred years later.

In so doing he worked hard and conscientiously to achieve the goal of our Founding Fathers’ Constitution, to “form a more perfect Union. establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility…”

It has long seemed incredible to me that Second Amendment ideological die hards have been working so relentlessly and heartlessly for more than four decades to reject these principles and to undermine efforts to try to achieve our Constitution’s goal of a more perfect union, establish Justice, and insure domestic tranquility.  Sorry to repeat those important lines but the tension between the ideal and the ideologues’ disruptive and destructive behavior is simply astounding and needs to be called out at every opportunity and in every situation.

Gun violence is a cancerous threat to achieving these critical goals, and it endangers societal stability through constant firearm-related tragedies, adds to social tensions and disarray, erodes trust and cooperation with law enforcement, feeds talk of cold civil wars and even leads some to suggest the possibility of violent insurrections on the part of the misguided or manipulated.

This brings us squarely to the Second Amendment, its textual problems, and the possibility that the Supreme Court will make things still worse should it rule in June in favor of more widespread concealed carry throughout the country. 

How to achieve this more perfect Union against a backdrop of incessant gun violence, 20,000 murders and 24,000 suicides a year, annual attributable economic losses of over $200 billion, and the simple grief and mourning of millions of the surviving family and friends of the innocent victims each year?

The policy solutions are obvious, simple and achievable.  But reasonable efforts to achieve them are crassly blocked by the 27 word flawed phrase written 231 years ago that has been manipulated and misconstrued into a totally false narrative of individual liberty and the need to defend against imagined tyranny on the part of a government democratically elected under the world’s shining light of a Constitution. 

Blocking a national response to reducing gun violence has no justification.  Asserting that discussing improvement and change is unpatriotic is the brazen talking point of the massive and disingenuous propaganda campaign launched by a small group of self-serving gun enthusiasts who took control of the NRA in the 1970s. 

Emboldened by their success, they have intimidated the so-called “conservative” politicians of the country into believing that unrestricted access to firearms up to military grade weaponry somehow is good for liberty and the country, despite the compelling amount of evidence totally to the contrary.  And, in the meantime, gun manufacturers are generating billions in profits.

Yes, a very sad, tragic and costly state of affairs.  Let’s tackle the problem sensibly and in a way that is fully consonant with our hallowed democratic traditions. 

There is clear and strong public support for any number of simple steps.  Credible and relevant background checks, limits on allowable magazines, compulsory firearms trainings, red flag laws are the most obvious.  All of these can be put in place through Congressional action without diminishing whatsoever the liberty and interests of the nation’s hunters, target shooters, and people who need legitimate firearms to feel insecure in their own homes. 

And we need to press law enforcement leaders to step up to the plate and to stop shirking their responsibility to their rank and file officers.   They, and we, should never minimize the pressures and tensions faced by our law enforcement officers, who work in constant fear that their encounters with citizens could subject them to deadly gun fire.  Let’s also recognize that these pressures and tensions – and their individual real life experiences – have imposed a real human cost on law enforcement, with 100,000 officers suffering from PTSD.  We and their leaders owe it to them to reduce the threat of firearms within the country by bringing the Second Amendment into the 21st century.

I hope that readers will give these points and nuances serious thought, and press their political and law enforcement leaders to look hard at the Amendment’s 27 words and its now irrelevant prefatory clause. 

Make this simple and clear point to these leaders, and to SCOTUS justices.   A “well organized militia” is no longer necessary to the security of a free State; security depends on effective and trusted law enforcement, solid national defense institutions and capabilities, a strong economy, and, most of all, social cohesion and shared values among the population.  If the “well organized militia” clause is no longer valid, the notion of “shall not be infringed” also loses validity.  The Supreme Court needs to look at this in jurisprudence and practical terms before launching the country into an even more dangerous gun violence scenario.

Please step up your efforts; rampant concealed and open carry lies ahead this fall if you don’t.  Your children and grandchildren, and theirs as well, will thank you.