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 have been held up at gun point. Not once, not twice, but THREE times in my life.
In NYC. Where the right of the people to keep and bear Arms is totally infringed. Also the right of the people to keep and bear bullet-proof vests.
The first time, I was 10. In the house alone (I KNOW! But in my parents defence, it was the 70's and latch-key kids were not so rare then). I let in a woman who said my parents had hired her to be the new cleaning woman. And she robbed us.
The second time, I was 16 and working at David's Cookies. The guy who robbed us was really not very smart as he came in only an hour after we opened.
The third time, I was 26 and working at Murder Ink, the World's Oldest Mystery Bookstore (now, sadly, defunct). The liquor store next door was much better protected than we were.
None of those instances made me fear guns. Nor did they make me fearful of gun violence. Nor did they make me want to run out and buy a gun.
We do own two guns. They came to our family in the early '00's. They are very tidily locked up away from our son and our son's friends. My spouse has held a concealed carry permit which he got in...2003? I think? in conjunction with some work he was doing at the time.
I have practiced at the range with both guns. Guns will never be anything for me to get passionate over, except where I feel that people aren't handling them safely. Keep them locked up. Especially if you have children in your house.
The question that always comes up for me about guns and the US is...why, if we have fewer guns per capita than either Canada or Switzerland, do we have more gun violence than either of those two countries?
What are they doing right? What are we doing wrong? Is it a difference in attitude? Is it a difference in focus?
Ooh! Here's a bit of gun trivia for you...while young women ATTEMPT suicide at greater rates than young men, young men SUCCEED more often...because they tend to have greater access to, and familiarity with, guns. So please keep your guns safely locked up away from your teens, too.
call me contrarian -- i think the "well-regulated militia" part should mean something.
ReplyDeleteand although i come from a line of gun-lovers, i hate hate hate guns. no, i won't take away your heirlooms or hunting rifles. your stuff is locked up. but random street violence, robberies gone bad, household accidents -- i have seen too much, and can't tolerate it.
one of my classmates in 9th grade nearly killed his best friend when they were messing around with a pistol belonging to one of the dads. a student in my dorm was shot dead and left in the trunk of a car. one of our family physicians was killed a few years ago, along with her young daughters, by her husband, who also killed himself; he left notes to the effect that they weren't doing well enough financially. a music student attending the music school of a friend's daughter was paralyzed a couple years back by a stray bullet, while he was practicing piano. these stories don't even begin to address the stuff we read about in the news every day.
i hate guns. i do not know why we allow so many to be around. there are few places where the interests of the "guns for all" lobby and scared kids on the street intersect, but unregulated guns for all is that intersection, and i don't like it. at all.
Liz, I'd forgotten about the David's Cookies hold-up; didn't know about the other two. Sheesh.
ReplyDeleteFor 20+ years I've lived in the most restrictive gun-owning environment in the country: Chicago has a complete ban on private handgun ownership, or at least it does until the Supreme Court finds it to be unconstitutional, which it certainly is. Chicago also has one of the highest if not the highest murder rate in the nation, and among the highest rates of gun violence. I agree with you, banning handguns clearly isn't the answer. I'm a Bill of Rights absolutist - I believe that when the First Amendment says Congress shall make "no law" abridging freedom of speech or the press, it means NO LAW. The Second Amendment is equally clear: the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Kathy, I disagree with you about the opening phrase "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State," -- in wills and trusts, we have the concept of "precatory language" - statements of purpose or intent included in the document that do not actually provide direction to the people carrying out the document. That's how I think of the "well regulated Militia" language, but I could certainly see that an alternate interpretation would be to allow for some "regulation" - background checks, registration, safety training, even periodic continuing education requirements to renew license. But I don't htink it changes the fact that the Second Amendment provides for an unambiguous individual right to keep and bear arms. Whether that's a good thing or not is a policy issue on which reasonable people can disagree, but if enough people think it's bad policy, then there's a process available to change it.