The wide availability of automatic guns has made it difficult for humanity to manage the anger of every individual. Moreover, it appears that the increasing frequency of “active shooter” events at our schools and other locations is overtaxing the capability of our public safety agencies to deal with them. This only increases the urgency with which automatic weapons must be more effectively controlled. They unleash violence that civilization had previously been able to confine to manageable proportions.
High power and capacity firearms are weapons of war and the maintenance of public safety. The people responsible for those functions are under official control and discipline. The sale of those weapons should be limited to those agencies. The Second Amendment does not entitle private citizens to them.
We have let weapons manufacturers and dealers distort the Constitution’s protection of the people’s right to prevent political oppression into the unmanageable availability of the means for sociopaths violently to express their frustrations.
The Second Amendment was not adopted to protect individuals’ right to personal freedom. Rather, it was drafted to ensure a collective right to defend democratic rule. For example, automotive vehicles also are potentially deadly weapons; however, they are allowed only to licensed drivers.
While the right of individuals to defend themselves is not in the original Constitution, it has been recognized as a 14th Amendment right like the right to privacy. And yet, automatic weapons, particularly AR-15 type rifles, are widely available. The main reason that automatic weapons are so common is the shameless dependence of a substantial number of state legislators on the financial support of the gun lobby.
Some human beings have limited self-control. The maintenance of civic order while honoring equal protection under the law demands that certain dangers to public and personal safety, like opioids and automatic weapons, be subject to regulation. Life takes precedence over freedom when civil society is at stake. We all have to pay the price of civilization,
# posted by frank : 5:30 PM
