It has been more than a week since the Texas school shooting. Most of us have gone back to our daily lives. Our shock has turned to cynicism, as we realize that despite our leaders’ expressions of concern, very little will change. Sooner of later, there will be yet another massacre and more expressions of concern.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and many other conservative politicians have called the shooter and the shooting “evil.” But attributing such a grotesque act to a formless force is too easy. It conveniently excuses the speaker’s own culpability in opposing basic gun control measures that could have prevented the shooting.
Gun rights supporters hide behind the Second Amendment, revering it as a sacred text, as if it grants each citizen the right to own an assault rifle and bars even modest gun control. It does neither. It simply permits states to organize militias for self defense.
The Second Amendment states, “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.” Most gun rights advocates gloss over the first part of that sentence.
Yet the Second Amendment is the only place in the Bill of Rights where the framers of our Constitution included an introductory, explanatory clause. Surely, they did not mean for it to be ignored.
Moreover, the framers lived in a time of single-shot muskets, which were not terribly accurate and took a long time to reload. They would be aghast at the weapons that are available to ordinary citizens today. What legitimate use could a civilian have for AR-15, such as the one that the 18-year-old school shooter used and which he bought legally only a week before?
Gov. Abbott has called tough gun laws in Chicago, New York, and California ineffective. Of course, those laws will never be effective as they should be, as long as one can buy a gun in another jurisdiction where the laws are looser. A city-by-city, state-by-state approach will never work. We need a national solution.
But don’t expect our feckless Congress to provide one. Meaningful gun control will come only if there is a massive nonviolent movement on the scale of Civil Rights movement, with millions of people marching and singing, holding signs and praying, writing letters and voting.
The best way to remember and honor those whose lives ended before they had a chance to live them is for each of us to strive to prevent such tragedies in the future.
Gregor Smith
Belgrade
Send questions/comments to the editors.
