The Death Amendment

The headline is “Justices set to mull gun rights.” The Supreme Court of the United States is considering the 2nd 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.” I call it the “Death Amendment.”

I thought the word “mull” might to be making light of the judicial proceeding. I assure you that in listening to the proceeding the justices were more than mulling. What was I listening for in their mulling? I was hoping that the justices, in making their points of law, would consider the protection of life.

In 1980 I had two gun incidents at the junior high school were I was assistant principal. 800 students were placed in danger. One of the handgun kids came within a second of death by a police officer. The same year an assistant principal was shot in the face by a student. That was 19 years before Columbine, 13 dead, 23 wounded and 2 suicides. I was assigned by the Court to be involved with the attorneys in the first gun in the school case after Columbine in the State of Arizona. I had to sort through the incident and make educational recommendations about what to do with the child. In another case a Phoenix Police Officer told me that a juvenile under my review had pointed an Uzi at him and pulled the trigger, the gun had jammed. A hard question I had to answer was given to me by a mother whose son was shot to death, “Sir, can you help me bury my son?” None of the children I had reason to be associated with were members of “A well regulated militia”, nor were any of the dead at Columbine nor the victims and survivors I knew or know members of a foreign or domestic army. And that is the truth!

Children and Gun Violence

1. America is losing too many children to gun violence. Between 1979 and 2001, gunfire killed 90,000 children and teens in America. (Children's Defense Fund and National Center for Health Statistics)
2. In one year, more children and teens died from gunfire than from cancer, pneumonia, influenza, asthma, and HIV/AIDS combined. (Children's Defense Fund)
3. The rate of firearm deaths among kids under age 15 is almost 12 times higher in the United States than in 25 other industrialized countries combined. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
   Statistics cited at Children
   

I consider the 2nd Amendment a short lived right. Time and the developing of our governmental structure do not support the right. I believe some have extended the right into alien areas for alien purposes. Therefore, I believe the Supreme Court needs to consider this Amendment in the light of the hundreds of violent deaths, caused by a gun. The consideration should revolve around the sanctity of life. For me, as a Christian, that would begin within Genesis 9 and Exodus 20:13. For the Supreme Court, I thought it might begin with a review of the weakening of this arms right as there is no need for “the remote settler to defend himself and his family against hostile Indian tribes and outlaws, wolves and bears and grizzlies and things like that.” Justice Anthony Kennedy. Rather, the Court should move to a review of this right as a strong domestic protection against weapons and the needless slaughter of citizens. Ruling in favor of the latter would mean a ban on guns or gun control. I say, handguns and automatic weapons in all forms must be controlled.

Politically the 2nd Amendment stands as a political football. Proponents of an open gun decision stand to be appeased if the Court rules in favor of no ban. This is an election year and of course the In Party wants to avoid having gun control as a political issue. If the Supreme Court rules to a narrow opinion ( which I think they will), that is only consider the Amendment in light of the District of Columbia, then gun control will be on the market place floor for consideration and to gather votes for the In Party, who is for no gun control.

As the 2nd Amendment stands, it provides a right to kill. Gun manufactures have made it so you can be shot and killed in rose, pink, purple and green colored guns. To get killed by a black gun is not “in”.

Eutychus