Some years ago, when I was beginning to engage on the critical issue of gun violence in our great country, I put down on paper the thoughts below. 

Now, years later, and with the U.S. facing the incredibly daunting – and dangerous – prospect of greater open carry and concealed carry in many states or even across the land, these observations and arguments are all the more urgent.

So, let me start the year 2022 with this nod to the decades of the tragic past, which is fact is still very much our present and unfortunately, likely to become, with ominous implications, the country’s future for decades as well. 

Please read on, and please do your part to broach and promote the issue of “a Second Amendment for 21st Century America” with political leaders, opinion shapers and influencers, and SCOTUS members and staff who share our values and goals.

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Musings from the previous decade

Some people assert the Constitution is inviolate, should be interpreted literally, and is unchallengeable as a 21st century governance document. 

But the Constitution is a living document, with 27 amendments over the years, many adopted in response to strong societal pressure.  Like codifying slavery, denying the women the vote, and prohibition in their time, the Second Amendment, might, just might, not be in sync with our great country’s needs and values today.

The Founding Fathers amended the 1789 Constitution with the 1791 Bill of Rights, including the clumsily worded Second Amendment:  “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“. Unfortunately, today’s popular and judicial focus falls on the second clause; the critical initial point – a well regulated militia – is ignored.

Much has happened since 1791, when single shot pistols and muskets were a necessary part of pioneer life along the dangerous American frontier.  Thousands of innocent lives are now lost each year as a result of that poorly worded Amendment.

Gun safety and security measures were adopted over the years, notably in response to Tommy guns and gangster violence in the 1930s.  Moderate NRA leaders were pushed aside by “from my cold dead hands” ideologues in the late 1970s; the NRA has since browbeaten politicians into endorsing near-machine gun sales and minimal restrictions on gun and ammunition purchases.

Why no open, reasoned discussion of the Second Amendment’s relevance to today’s America?  To this non-partisan middle of the roader, the answer is fear, greed, political manipulation, hypocrisy, and cold-heartedness. 

Start with fear. The hyping of threats to personal safety and security by many, including headline-focused media, has created a climate of fear for many Americans, who worry of becoming the next violent crime victim on the news.  But the prevalence of guns makes the U.S. dangerous.  Murders by firearms average 10,000 a year, suicides more than 20,000.  Incidents of mass murder – and the number of victims per event – have reached unthinkable levels. 

Greed.  The gun industry and the NRA prosper in this climate of fear.  Gun production doubled since 2009 as the NRA stoked fears of gun control initiatives.  Assault weapons are the deadliest new element; over one million annually in recent years (NSSF).  There are nearly 400 million guns in the U.S., up from 250 million in 1996.  Gun and ammo manufacturers’ profits totaled in the billions over those years. 

This fear and greed facilitate cynical political manipulation. Threatened by NRA retribution and fueled by NRA funding, many politicians acquiesce in the NRA’s unbending line demanding blind defense of the Second Amendment and a total rejection of meaningful gun safety and security.

And there is the hypocrisy of politicians who proclaim themselves steadfast Second Amendment defenders while retreating to safety behind the Capitol’s and their offices’ hard lines, where constituents’ guns are banned.  They embrace "no guns" safety and security provided for air travel by TSA.   

The increased carnage of recent years is clearly due to the ready availability of military style assault weapons, designed to slaughter in combat.  Few assert such weapons are legitimate for hunting.  Amazingly, some claim the Second Amendment guarantees the right to assault rifles for target shooting.  Such cold-heartedness, placing recreation above the tragedy of hundreds of innocent lives lost to AR-15s.

Constitutional amendments have righted egregious wrongs, like slavery and denying the vote to women. Seems only fair to the thousands of yearly gun violence victims that we consider amendment or repeal of the 230 year old Second Amendment. In stark contrast to the 18th century’s single shot pistols and muskets, today’s weapons allow killers to fire nine rounds a second as evidenced by the killing of 58 and wounding of 546 in 10 minutes in October 2017 in Las Vegas, the most egregious of the many mass shootings in the U.S. over recent years. Who knows what capabilities tomorrow will bring?

Such bloodletting has no place in America. Indeed, the Declaration of Independence’s inalienable Rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” are sadly and precipitously betrayed for thousands of innocent victims of gun violence.

Credible national polling makes clear that most Americans support meaningful background checks, limits on multi-round magazines, red flag laws to remove guns from disturbed individuals and a ban on military-style assault weapons, used to devastating effect in Odessa, Dayton, El Paso, Sutherland Springs, Las Vegas, Orlando, Sandy Hook and many other places, with 198 killed and 700 wounded in just those named incidents.  

For the NRA apparatus and die hard supporters of the clumsily worded 2nd amendment, this is blasphemy.  For them, the Second Amendment guarantees that individual citizens can arm themselves to the teeth to defend themselves at home, on the street, and from potential freedom-robbing encroachment by “the government”, as well as for personal recreation.  By this reasoning, a 21st century Whiskey Rebellion, or perhaps even a new Civil War, could be justified to combat overstepping government if individual citizens judge their rights are under threat.

This reasoning is hollow and flawed.  Many of these same people argue vociferously that the U.S. Constitution is mankind’s best.  Its fundamental principle: informed electorates choose Congressional delegates to represent them responsibly and to work together to enact laws of benefit to the people and country. Any excessive government “encroachment” would be the direct result of our democracy, of decisions taken by the elected representatives and President.  By their logic, when the time comes for confrontation, Second Amendment die-hards anticipate fighting U.S. law enforcement, the National Guard or even the U.S. Army itself.  But, if they were to prevail, they would no doubt institute a constitution similar to what we have today.

Other strange counter arguments have surfaced, including some who argue for the need to assess the economic impact of gun safety and security measures, including on gun and ammo manufacturers and sellers as well as state government’s tax revenues.  What about the lost economic potential of hundreds of thousands of lives cut short by gun violence?

A modern Second Amendment would allow legitimate ownership and uses of firearms while helping to temper some of the carnage. There is no rational reason for large, multi-round magazines; there is no rational reason to allow untrained people to brandish arms in public; there is no rational reason not to act to constrain the wanton killing of fellow Americans by weapons designed to wreak havoc on the battlefield.

Responsible gun owners lose nothing with such a constitutional change, and we all gain a more secure and safer society. It’s time to discuss for the greater good of the country, leaving senseless ideology aside. Let’s make America a safer – and better – place.