Johnny Get Your Gun, Just Maybe Not an AR-15

Johnny Get Your Gun, Just Maybe Not an AR-15

"If you throw a brick, a firebomb, or point a gun at one of our deputies, we will be notifying your family where to collect your remains because we will kill you, graveyard dead. We’re not going to play." Brevard County, Florida, Sheriff Wayne Ivey at a press conference, June 12th

Even as Donald Trump approved modifications to turn a semiautomatic rifle in to a fully automatic weapon – is he preparing for a civil war? – local jurisdictions, with real mass shootings and criminals better armed than the police, are still clamping down on such weapons in their states or their cities. But eliminating the middlemen, the judge and the jury, seems to be a Trump favorite. Any pretense that he stands for the rule of law perished forever when pardoned his loyal, convicted January 6th felons when, knowing they were armed as he addressed the faithful at the Ellipse, he told them to march down to the Capitol. Mayhem ensued. The political assassination in Minnesota, on June 14th, was another circumstance where a Trump follower, dressed as a cop, eliminated the middlemen. As the above chart clearly illustrates, murder by gun with multiple victims never ends.

In 2008, ultra-rightwing Supreme Court Associate Justice, Antonin Scalia, made a mockery of the Constitution by insisting that the only way for courts to interpret that founding document was to look at the historical reality when the provision at bar was enacted, and apply the reality of that era to the relevant interpretation. That inane approach, called “originalism,” allowed Scalia to apply the law and use of flintlocks and muskets to his interpretation of the application of gun rights in the 21st century. In Heller vs DC, AR-15s and large capacity Glocks were treated as front-loading, single shot and wildly inaccurate muskets. Lower courts went crazy with pro-gun rulings. Open-carry everywhere, often even concealed-carry, was permitted. Mass shootings exploded. Gunshot became the number one killer of children and teens.

As Deidre McPhillips, writing for the June 9th Los Angeles Times wrote: “A landmark Supreme Court case in 2010 – McDonald v. Chicago – ruled that the Second Amendment applies to local governments, leading to a flurry of new laws and a deeper divide in state policy around firearms, with some states tightening restrictions and others weakening gun-related laws.

“Over the next 13 years, thousands more children died from firearm violence than earlier trends would have predicted – and all of the increase happened in groups of states that had more permissive gun laws, according to a study published Monday [6/9] in JAMA Pediatrics.” As the above quote from Brevard County, Florida, Sheriff Wayne Ivey, shoot first and ask questions later is as American as apple pie. Due process is a waste of time. When two senior lawmakers in ruby red state scoffed at California’s erosion of the rule of law, California Governor Gavin Newsom pointed out that their states, Mississippi and Alabama, had roughly double and triple, respectively, the number of murders as did California.

But until recently, every attempt by local and state governments to impose reasonable gun control was, you’ll pardon the expression, shot down. In 2025, perhaps stung by the resulting carnage, the Supreme Court appears to be noticing that this has to stop. They refused to hear two cases, where state laws imposing restrictions on semi-automatic weapons and having guns in cities, were upheld by appellate courts. And yes, America, gun restrictions save lives.

McPhillips continues: “Researchers grouped states into three categories based on firearm ownership and use policies – most permissive, permissive and strict – using a composite of policy scorecards from nonprofit advocacy groups: Brady, Everytown for Gun Safety and the Giffords Law Center.

“They found significant increases in the number of children who died from guns in states with looser laws: more than 6,000 additional deaths in states with the most permissive laws between 2011 and 2023, and more than 1,400 additional deaths in states considered to have permissive laws… Half of the states considered to have strict firearm laws – California, Maryland, New York, and Rhode Island – saw a decrease in pediatric firearm mortality in that time.

“Overall, there was an increase in child deaths from firearm-related homicides and an even greater increase in child deaths from firearm-related suicides, the study found. But pediatric mortality from others causes – including other suicides – did not increase in this time… Experts emphasize that many gun-related injuries and deaths are preventable, especially among children.” Sorry, the only real way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good state that tries to prevent that bad guy from accessing a gun!

Yet bad practices continue. American gunmakers have ensured that cartels below our southern border will continue to dominate. Invoking a federal statute relieving those manufacturers of liability for the use of their weapons in criminal activity, “The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday [8/5]in favor of U.S. gun manufacturers and blocked a liability lawsuit brought by the government of Mexico, which sought to hold the companies accountable for the trafficking of their weapons south of the border to fuel violence by the cartels.

“The government argued in its historic lawsuit that American firearms manufacturers, including Smith & Wesson, Glock, Beretta and Colt, were ‘aiding and abetting’ the illicit flow of weapons across the border… Mexico sought $10 billion in damages, court-mandated safety mechanisms and sales restrictions for U.S.-made guns.” ABC News, June 5th. And we complain about those cartels and tell Latin American countries that they need to get control of those criminal drug enterprises that we have armed! Seriously. We enable that cross-border drug traffic but take no responsibility for our actions!

I’m Peter Dekom, and our American obsession with gun ownership is not a necessary result of the 2nd Amendment, and the lives of our children must take precedence over selfish gun owners and violent gangs.