We would take the liberty, at the outset of this writing, to pose some pithy questions. What is the persona of a young man who, fully dressed in body armor, brings guns to his town’s elementary school (grades two to four), and intentionally, kills (nineteen) little children and a schoolteacher? What, indeed, is the essential character of a Nation that possesses a far greater number of firearms than people? What is the moral compass of Congress and the many State Legislatures that do nothing to ameliorate the many replications of such tragic events, as the above referenced, school shooting at Uvalde Texas, and similar tragedies, at venues such as Columbine, Park Lane, Sandy Hook, Buffalo and so many others? Why do analogous shootings of peaceful American citizens and their children, take place, at public spaces, like supermarkets, parking lots, streets, parks and jogging trails? Why are the school shooters, usually, teen-age males? Why, disturbingly, and shamefully, do such horrible events occur fifty-seven times more often in our country than others? Why does our Congress, unconscionably, persist in valuing weapons of war, above human life? It all seems, bizarre and incomprehensible.
Reports indicate that in the year ending 2021, mass casualty shootings in our Nation totaled, six hundred and ninety-three and for the previous two years, six hundred eleven, and four hundred seventeen; despite the fact that, eighty-five percent of Americans favor gun registration and regulation. In the context of our representative democracy, the situation seems, logically, and empirically, questionable.
Since the partisan (Republican Party), reading, of the Second Amendment was approved by the Supreme Court, viz., that every American has the right to own and use weapons, the rich and powerful gun lobby has, joyfully, experienced great financial success, and the vulnerable American citizen and his family, have experienced terror and tragedy.
Accurately read, in the context of the relevant period’s history, the Second Amendment, was intended to inscribe a negotiated settlement of an early, hotly contested, dispute, regarding the issue of the desirability of a central (Federal) government ( the Federalists) versus independent State rule (State’s Rightists). The hard fought, historical, settlement, affirmed the establishment of a Central government,(Federal) and, as well, left the individual States independent but permitted, respectively, to have standing militias (“the People”), the latter to have the right to bear arms. Our once, revered Supreme Court incorrectly, and irresponsibly, gave gun interests, the franchise to reap great profits at the evident expense of the imperiled American citizen. Scores of politically, motivated and improper rulings by the much-diminished SCOTUS, relative to other issues, were to follow.
The fundamental problem is that the gun issue has inappropriately, and essentially, become political and partisan, as sadly contrasted with the inarguably, relevant and vital matter, of citizen safety. The Nation’s paramount issue of the life and welfare of American citizens, was, shockingly, overridden, (“Trumped”) by, undemocratic political, and money interests; supported, largely by the Republican right, whose influence has, unhealthily, metastasized to the majority of the current constituency of the U.S. Supreme Court.
It is no less than, shamefully, irresponsible, that nothing to ameliorate the problem has, to date, been done, by Congress, regarding the issue of easily accessible, guns in the hands of the wrong people. It is, empirically, evident that such inaction is perceived as an implicit government endorsement of unregulated firearms ownership. As was said by the late, poetic, Ellie Wiesel, in a slightly different context, “The opposite of love, is not hate, but indifference.” In the context of this writing, we feel that the absence of respect for life is money’s influence on political ambition and humanistic morality.
What can a rational person conclude, about a democracy, respecting a Nation, in which a vast number of voters favor the regulation of firearms (in Governor Abbot’s Texas, it is reported that only 18% of the voters oppose background checks), and yet, their elected representatives, selfishly and irresponsibly, act otherwise, in their financial, or political, self-interest, in favor of special interests?
We are at the present, apprehensively, awaiting yet another, predictably, partisan (Republican) political travesty, founded on analogous, political ambition and selfish disregard for the welfare of the citizen. The political gurus seem confident, in their prediction that the current politically tainted, SCOTUS, will, similarly, responsive to special interests, overturn the settled, half-century, precedential, decision, in Roe v. Wade, which constitutionally and legally, assured to women the natural and basic liberty to make, medically safe, decisions concerning their own body.
It is ineluctably clear, that our contemporary, problems are not founded, specifically, on the issues of the propriety of guns or of abortion, per se, but arise, fundamentally, as a by-product of the selfish ambition, greed and irresponsibility, of many of our political leaders and lawmakers.
-p.
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