I just have a hard time agreeing with those who say that our
country is the best in the world. The United States set a standard for
individual freedom and democracy that the world has only begun to begin
matching but in the process, we have lost the essential purpose of that
freedom. Freedom isn’t just about the ability to do as one pleases. It is much
deeper. Freedom is the ability to pursue one’s ambitions, free from the
restraints of fear no matter what the source.
At the time the Constitution was written, the source of fear
was often government and the tyranny of British rule. It is for this reason
that much of the Constitution and of the Bill of Rights subsequent to it
focuses on protecting citizens from the tyranny government at that time was
often responsible for. But regardless of the words used or the individual
protections sought, the essential purpose of the Constitution was to guarantee
that the citizens of this new country would be able to pursue their dreams and
to live their lives free from fear.
In the wake of this tragedy of epic proportions, there are
many out there who have taken to the pulpit to defend their right to own a gun
and to argue that Americans’ freedom to arm themselves as they wish is in no
way a part of the problem. In fact, many of these people continue to argue that
the minimal gun control we do have is the cause of this violence, that despite
a plethora of evidence it is the absence of gun owners and not the presence of
these deadly weapons that has allowed deranged monsters to wreak havoc. But
even putting aside a very legitimate case that could be made against the 2nd
Amendment being interpreted as establishing a Constitutional right to bear
arms, there is no arguing that the 2nd Amendment does not eliminate
fear and thus fails to live up to its very purpose for being included in the
Bill of Rights. Nearly 100 people have lost their lives in mass shootings this
year alone, and over 10,000 will die as a result of gun-related homicides. No
longer does the establishment that “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” help to assuage peoples fears’ over the possible
tyranny of government intrusion. Rather, the amendment itself has become the
source and root cause of fears across the spectrum of American life.
The 2nd Amendment has allowed the south side of
Chicago to become a virtual war zone, where even a house of worship is not
immune from gun violence.
The 2nd Amendment allowed the innocence of cinema
to be crushed by the terror of mass murder.
And just this week, the 2nd Amendment
contributed, along with mental illness, to a deadly cocktail that ultimately
resulted in the unspeakable, in the murder of 20 innocent first-graders and 8
adults who had devoted their lives to helping those children make their dreams
a reality.
Because of that 2nd Amendment, children across
the country will go to school fearing the unthinkable, fearing that their
safety could be compromised in even the most sacred of nurturing places.
No matter what the Constitution says, there is an
inalienable right to live free of fear that trumps any 18th-Century
text when it comes to the way we ought to operate our society. There simply is
no rational way to refute the assertion that the 2nd Amendment is a
far greater danger to our modern society than the hypothetical government
tyranny it seeks to provide protection against.
The framers of our Constitution did not know of and could
not conceive of the power that an AR-15 assault rifle has to wreak havoc on an
urbanized society. Had they been able to foresee technological advances in
modern weaponry, I have not doubt they would have chosen to be more restrictive
in their phrasing of a so-called “right to bear arms”.
What I do know with certainty is that they sought above all
to ensure that their children had the freedom to live their lives and to pursue
their dreams without unreasonable and uncontrollable fears getting in their
way. Guns are today’s far too common source of such fears and for that reason
alone, it is about time that we sit down and seriously reconsider our steadfast
devotion to the 2nd Amendment and to protecting an individuals right
to be armed even when it is abundantly clear that such protection has become a
threat to the lives of even the most innocent in our society, our children.
