Under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Americans have the “right to keep and bear arms.” To many in the United States, it is a sacred right, but for virtually every other nation on earth, there is no such fundamental right embodied that such nations’ constitutions. In fact, other than the U.S., there are only three other national constitutions that protect the right to bear arms: “Mexico, Haiti, and Guatemala all enshrine the right to pack heat in their constitutions. Guatemala's Article 38 is the only one that's as broad as our Second Amendment (it guarantees "the right of possession of arms for personal use"). Article 10 of the Mexican constitution and Article 268-1 of Haiti’s constitution limit the right to the confines of the home and allow the government to pass laws significantly restricting ownership. Mexicans, for example, are supposed to get a permit, renewable every year, from the military, and all firearms must be registered. (The law is widely ignored. Only 4,300 licenses have been issued for Mexico's 105 million people.) Handguns must be .380 caliber or less, shotguns can't be greater than 12 gauge, and rifles must be .30 caliber or smaller.” Slate.com, December 14, 2010.
But in the United States, the mere thought of regulating or reigning in the free flow of weapons in the country is an anathema to so many Americans, to the point where one particular organization, the National Rifle Association, seems to have more power than all other such non-governmental organizations. When they speak, candidates shudder and state legislatures fall in line like little puppets. And even when there is overwhelming evidence that the virtually unregulated ability to buy pretty sophisticated weapons from guns shows in border states like Texas has supplied most of the murderous weapons used by Mexican drug cartels (in Mexico and increasingly in the U.S. itself) in their never-ending killing spree to maintain clean and unblocked access to the drug routes into the U.S., nobody in the U.S. lifts a finger to stem this absurd tide of death-inflicting weapons.
To make matters infinitely worse, the NRA has successfully managed to lobby 21 states into passing truly malignant “stand your ground” laws that seem to be nothing more than a license to execute people you don’t like. Florida is one state where this law has resulted in the untimely death of a popular high-school student, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin (above) who was coming home from a convenience store carrying nothing more than Skittles and a can of iced tea, a boy with no criminal record, minding his own business. He was shot dead by George Zimmerman, 28, a white Hispanic crime watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida, who seemed to be suspicious of an African –American child walking through the neighborhood such that he followed the lad until ultimately some sort of confrontation erupted. Zimmerman stood his ground, claimed he felt his life was threatened, and shot Martin on the spot. Justifiable homicide or racial profiling?
How is this possible? How does a man seeking confrontation with another, when the latter is clearly minding his or her own business, even remotely claim that such a killing is anything but cold-blooded murder? “In Florida, [the “stand your ground’ statute] was pushed heavily by the National Rifle Association but opposed vigorously by law enforcement… It gives the benefit of the doubt to a person who claims self-defense, regardless of whether the killing takes place on a street, in a car or in a bar — not just in one’s home, the standard cited in more restrictive laws. In Florida, if people feel they are in imminent danger from being killed or badly injured, they do not have to retreat, even if it would seem reasonable to do so. They have the right to ‘stand their ground’ and protect themselves.” New York Times, March 20th.
The local police department didn’t even bring charges against Zimmerman, and the local prosecutor was so conflicted on whether a law might have been broken that he was unable to make a call for an arrest by himself. “But late [March 19th], the [U.S.] Department of Justice said it had opened an inquiry into the shooting. It will run parallel with one announced on [March 20th] by the state attorney in Seminole County, who said a grand jury would be convened. State attorneys use grand juries in cases when they cannot make a clear independent call, or when a case is explosive.” NY Times.
In the end, the NRA has pursued a profoundly misguided policy that blindly promotes guns at all levels of society, usually without regard to or in complete denial of the consequences. They seem to forget where the Second Amendment came from – the Congressional reluctance to keep a large standing army, relying instead on action by citizen-soldiers operating within local militias. It was these militias that were designed to protect the country from her enemies. Here are the precise words of the 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.” It’s time to reign in the NRA, repeal these incredibly dangerous and ill-conceived “stand your ground” laws and begin to clamp down on the seemingly free flow of weapons into the wrong hands.
What exactly happened in Martin’s case? “Just moments before Trayvon Martin was shot and killed, he was on his cellphone talking with a 16-year-old girl. For the first time, the girl is speaking out about the last, horrifying moments of Martin's life...‘He said this man was watching him, so he put his hoodie on. He said he lost the man,’ the girl told ABC News. ‘I asked Trayvon to run, and he said he was going to walk fast. I told him to run but he said he was not going to run.’
“According to accounts gleaned from 911 audio recordings made the night of the killing and the teenage girl's statements, Martin eventually did run. But George Zimmerman wasn't far behind, and soon the two would be face to face. Zimmerman, the self-appointed captain of the neighborhood watch, was armed with a 9 mm pistol. Trayvon had little more than a bag of candy in his pocket... ‘Trayvon said, 'What are you following me for?' and the man said, 'What are you doing here?' Next thing I hear is somebody pushing, and somebody pushed Trayvon because the headset just fell. I called him again and he didn't answer the phone.’ The line went dead, according to the girl's account.” Huffington Post, March 21st.
Want to know how well that new law is working in Florida? “In the five years before the law’s approval, Florida averaged 12 justifiable homicides a year, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. In the six years since, the average is 33.” CNN.com, March 20th. Shame on the National Rifle Association. Shame on the legislators who care more for guns that human lives, and shame on us for letting them!
I’m Peter Dekom, and the notion of responsibility seems to have left the gun-lobby entirely.
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