Posted by
Tony Guinta on Wednesday, July 02, 2008 5:00:00 PM
I have spent a lot of time pondering the reasons why there are
questions about the second amendment. Often the argument turns to debates over the word "militia" and whether or not the founders intended for the second amendment to apply to the people or to the states right to form the National Guard.
This argument appears to be easy to clear up by reviewing the federal legal definition of militia in Title 10 Section 311 of the US Code:
Sec. 311. Militia: composition and classes
(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are -
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and (2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.
I read this as all able-bodied males between 17 and 45 are members of
the militia. Also, females who are members of the National Guard are
considered part of the militia. So, even if the second amendment only
applies to "the militia", that includes every able-bodied man who's between
17 & 45.
I believe the real
reason for the debate regarding gun rights is that there are many who feel the second amendment is obsolete
and they're looking for any excuse to get rid of it. I see several reasons why some would like to do away with the second amendment:
- There is a general, irrational fear of guns
- We are continually outsourcing more and more aspects of our lives; and ...
- ... the concept of personal responsibility is eroding, so we rely
upon the police and military to defend ourselves and our families
-
US History is not studied anymore, thus the reasons behind the second amendment are misunderstood
-
Gun control advocates believe that people in general are stupid,
irresponsible, dangerous, and cannot be trusted to possess deadly
weapons
What follows are my in depth thoughts on these points...
Irrational Fear of Guns - Guns Kill
We all agree that guns are dangerous tools, but they are still just
tools. Cars are also very dangerous but we allow teenagers as young as
16 years old to drive cars. A car can be as dangerous as a gun, in that
someone can drive it to a crowded area and mow down tens of people. In
fact, in Santa Monica, CA in 2003, an elderly man lost control of his
car and plowed through a farmer's market killing 9 people and injuring
45. Imagine how many could be killed if someone intentionally set out to mow down a crowd.
There are many other tools that are as, or nearly as, dangerous as
guns, but guns are generally feared more than any other tool. There
seems to be this perception among many that possession of a gun will
turn a perfectly normal, law-abiding citizen into a psycho killer. It
almost seems as if some people think that guns will just randomly fire
on their own, killing innocent children for no apparent reason.
Foreign Concept of Personal Responsibility
Every
day there are more examples of how the concept of personal
responsibility is eroding. Someone else is to blame for anything that
goes wrong, and we are all victims:
One of the results of this is that many people are less apt to
take the initiative in a situation -- they wait and expect someone else (preferably from the government) to take action. On June 2nd, an elderly man was hit by a car while crossing the street in Brooklyn, NY. It was a hit-and-run incident
and other cars continued to swerve around the man who was lying in the street and kept going. There were people standing on the sidewalk just looking at the person in the
middle of the street, but none tries to help the man. Truly pathetic.
We have a growing society of people who aren't taking care of their
own families, let alone helping their neighbors, or participating in
their own communities. With freedom comes responsibility. Every time we
give up some of our responsibilities, the government compensates by
assuming more power which results in us giving up another piece of our liberty.
With this mentality, rather than holding people accountable for
their actions, we have numerous prevention laws, examples being
seatbelt and helmet laws. When it comes to gun laws, you'll often hear the
soundbite "if this law saves just one life...". Some of the articles I reference here have comments attached, and you'll see that many people simply call for more laws and regulations rather than simply holding the true offender accountable for their actions. In their opinion, it's clear that the government is not doing enough.
Outsourcing - It's the job of the police and military to protect us
As
our lives are becoming more complicated and busy, we're outsourcing
more and more of the basic tasks that we used to do for ourselves:
- Get a flat tire, call AAA and wait for them to change it
- Hire a handyman to change a doorknob
- It's the fire department's job to protect our homes and businesses from fire
- It's the President's job to protect us from natural disasters
- It's the police department's job to protect us from violent criminals
- It's the military's job to protect us from foreign threats
- It's the government's job to provide us with health care and retirement funds
- The list goes on and on
This is related to the lack of
personal responsibility, but compounded by the fact that we're all
becoming more busy and focused on our jobs and less focused on other
essential aspects of our lives. The point is, many people don't believe that it's
their responsibility to defend themselves -- they erroneously believe
that this is the job of the police. However, there is very little that the police can do in terms of prevention -- usually, their action begins only after a crime has been committed.
US History - Our nation's forefathers didn't know what they were doing
When
I was in school, I didn't care much for history -- I never understood
what the point of it was and it seemed to be a boring subject of
memorizing names and dates. I didn't have a history teacher who
explained the importance of the subject (i.e., "Those who fail to study
history are doomed to repeat it"). Unfortunately, I don't think my
story is unique -- many of my fellow Gen-X'ers and the Gen-Y'ers seem
to have this attitude. Fortunately, in my recent years I've come to appreciate the value of learning history.
The founders of this nation certainly did study their history and knew that
every repressive government had a great fear of an armed populace. In
creating a free society, it was a given that the right to bear arms
would be the final check against the government to insure against a
dictatorship.
"What country before ever existed a century & half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is its natural manure."
-
Thomas Jefferson in a letter to William Stephens Smith
It's important to note that the right to keep and bear arms was not
granted in the Bill of Rights -- it already existed. That's why it's
stated as it "shall not be infringed". This right existed not only so
that we could maintain "a well regulated militia", but also so that we
could protect ourselves, our property, and maintain a threat against
possible tyranny. The founders believed in the concept of natural rights, and encapsulated within the natural right to life is the right of self defense.
People cannot be trusted -- they're stupid and evil
This too
is directly tied to the concept of personal responsibility. This is why
we have government programs piled on top of programs to compensate for
the lack of personal responsibility of others. Examples being
seat belt and motorcycle helmet laws. The point here is that gun
control advocates tend to believe that people cannot be trusted with
guns, their fear being that people will start shooting each other over
every little confrontation, such as fights over parking spaces or
because your fries weren't served hot.
In order to maintain a free society, we must believe that people in general are good. Freedom allows people to make their own choices in life, whether good or bad, so long as those choices do not infringe upon the rights of someone else. When kept this simply, it is easy to hold individuals accountable for their actions -- it only becomes muddied as soon as we attempt to legislate through prevention (i.e., nanny-state laws).
Bottom Line
Loss of faith in humanity has led to many people looking to government to provide answers to all of our
problems. Thus, in their minds we don't need a militia anymore -- we have the police
and the military.
It's important to note the circular affect of this thinking:
As we lose faith in ourselves, we give up responsibility and the
government compensates by taking on more power. As government assumes more responsibility, we trade in a piece of our liberty. As we become accustomed to government
taking care of everything for us, we continue to lose trust in our own abilities, so we give
up more responsibility. And so the cycle continues.
Many
people scoff at the fear of government control. In fact, many are
demanding more government control. This is a huge disconnect from the
beliefs of our forefathers who had a healthy distrust for a strong
central government. My fear is that we may be caught in a downward
spiral and will have to hit bottom before we realize how far we've
drifted from the values on which this great nation was built.
What can we do?
Here is a list my own personal endeavors in the interest of preserving liberty and promoting personal responsibility:
-
Take care of myself, my family, and my community
-
Rise to the occasion and take the initiative when no one else steps forward
-
Gently educate others and remind them of the importance of personal responsibility
-
Continue to study history in order to learn from the wisdom gained through others' experiences
-
Respect the liberty of others as long as their liberty does not infringe upon that of someone else -- that means even when their choices are in conflict with my own beliefs and values