Search This Blog

Showing posts with label America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label America. Show all posts

June 30, 2018

The Constitution and the #NRA: The View from my Foxhole

I hear a lot of people talking about the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution. Here's a bit of clarification: In the premable of the Bill of Rights, it says "The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added." It is clear to me that the 2nd Amendment is meant to allow citizens to "keep and bear arms" to protect ourselves from the government. The founders were clearly taking steps to prevent the government from abusing its power. Politicians clearly hate this. Any time someone says the Constitution is out-dated, or not specific, I call bullshit. Sure, we can talk about a citizen's right to high-capacity magazines or weapons of war (I don't think people need), but the basic right to keep and bear arms should be maintained, as the amendment says "shall not be infringed." The laws regarding felons and mental patients already exist. Enforce them. It's tricky business because of a thing called the 4th Amendment (Rights against unlawful search and seizure). It's illegal to just bust in someone's house because they're a felon or mental patient to see if they're armed. Background check laws already exist. Enforce them. The Gun-Show loophole is gone. Enforce it. Automatic weapons are already illegal unless you are a licensed federal dealer. Bump stocks should be too. Provide mandatory gun training just like a driver's license, hunting license, or scuba certificate. NRA has been advocating all these things for years.