Despite the fact that the Second Amendment arose to allow citizen soldiers to keep their arms even during peacetime (“a well regulated Militia”), that the only portable weapons available in 1787 were muskets and flintlocks, and that the modern view of gun control was a narrow 5-4 and very recent 2008 Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, gun zealots always refer to the “tyranny of gun control” and the right to self-defense when logical gun restrictions are proposed. Self-defense? Statistically in the United States, excluding law enforcement shootings, there are 36 criminal gun homicides for every justifiable, self-defense gun homicide.
Today’s piece is a follow-up to my recent Assault Weapons, US Trained Seditionists & Assaults blog. The story is old. Logic and responsibility fall to gun zealots hiding under a misinterpretation of the Second Amendment. As the Boulder effort suggests: “In 2018, the Boulder City Council made national news for unanimously voting to outlaw assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
“With plenty of military-style rifles for sale nearby, the ban — a response to the deaths of 17 people in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. — was unlikely to stop anybody from buying one… But its proponents wanted to send a message to lawmakers up the chain… ‘My hope is that we will see more bans at the state level, and one day at the federal level, so these weapons will no longer be available,’ Boulder Councilman Aaron Brockett said at the time.
“Local gun groups, backed by the National Rifle Assn., immediately challenged the ban in court. On March 12, Boulder County District Judge Andrew Hartman threw the ban out, ruling that state law prevented cities from making their own gun rules… Ten days later — Monday [3/22] — a gunman turned a Boulder supermarket into a bloodbath, bringing more pain to a region that has a long history of mass shootings and renewing a national debate over gun control.” Los Angeles Times, March 25th. In fact, red state legislatures across the land are actually loosening restrictions on carrying and owning guns!
In the wake of never-ending mass shootings with semi-automatic military-grade assault weapons (such as the AR-15, pictured above, which was used by the Boulder killer), gun control clearly has overwhelming popular support. “Nearly two-thirds of Americans support tougher gun laws in the wake of two mass shootings that rocked the country in the last week, according to a new USA Today-Ipsos poll released on Wednesday [3/24].” TheHill.com, March 25th. Still the GOP blindly fights even the most modest gun control legislation.
The standard right-wing gun zealot response to such murders – “our prayers are with the families of the victims” – not only rings repetitively hollow but is actually a poke in the eye to those who must endure the personal misery of a preventable mass shooting. They always point to the shooter as the sole cause… never the ubiquitous availability of mass-people-killing machines that are clearly not intended for “hunters” and recreational shooters.
“Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert are facing backlash for offering their ‘prayers’ to victims in Boulder despite pushing for gun rights in the aftermath of the recent mass shooting.
“Mr Cruz launched into a staunch defence of firearm ownership at a hearing on Tuesday, falsely accusing Democrats of trying to take guns away from ‘law-abiding citizens… Every time there is a shooting, we play this ridiculous theatre where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders… What happens in this committee after every mass shooting is Democrats propose taking away guns from law-abiding citizens because that’s their political objective.’” Independent.co.uk, March 23rd
Yet there are right-wing uncaring, unsympathetic zealots, like Cruz and Boebert (and a number of other advocates of gun owners’ “rights’) who are even fighting the modest legislation proposed by the Biden administration to tighten up background checks and tracing who the gun buyers are. There is no excuse for these callous and absurd defenses of owning military grade assault weapons, and a majority of Americans agree with that sentiment.
In countries where such assault weapons are banned, there are virtually no mass guns killings. A knife assault can only go so far before citizens or police bring the perpetrator under control. But in under a minute, an armed and angry lunatic can kill dozens of people with a readily available AR-15. Lest we forget Columbine… or worse, Las Vegas in 2017:
“Police say Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old man from Mesquite, Nev., opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest Festival from the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. Concertgoers reported seeing flashes of muzzle light coming from the upper floors of the hotel and hearing bursts of gunfire over a period of nine minutes.” Time Magazine, 10/3/17. 59 human beings were murdered in minutes. The shooter ended his own life, but if assault weapons had been banned, these and hundreds of other victims of such mass shootings in the United States would be alive today.
Let me put this another way: simply compare the “tyranny” of controlling/banning assault weapons specifically designed to kill any number of people very quickly – with virtually no recreational or self-defense justification – against the genuine tyranny of being gunned down by a volume of bullets spewing out of a military grade assault weapon. When you are attending a music concert, going to school or just shopping for groceries. Pretty making going anywhere USA a dangerous risk. There is no excuse! NONE!
I’m Peter Dekom, and there is no credible justification for legitimizing routine civilian ownership of military grade assault weapons.
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