The Second Amendment

Amendment II

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.

I'm a reasonable person.  I'm not saying ban all firearms.  I'm not saying lock up everyone who might loose it and become violent.  

I'm saying, it's time to do some research.  It's time to publish the results.  Then it will be time to take action based on actual knowledge and data, rather than ideology and faith.

Recently the topic of mass shootings came up while some friends sat in a coffee house.  I was surprised to hear my friends resistant to the idea of gun control, even after the shooting at Umqua yesterday.  This is astounding to me.

In modern times the part of the amendment that seems to be the focus is "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed".  Yet the beginning part, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state" seems to be ignored.

What part of "well regulated" is unclear?  The weapons being used to commit these acts of mass violence are not part of a "well regulated" militia.  The Supreme Court has ruled that this right is not unlimited and does not prohibit regulation of fire arms or other weapons.  Why are we not moving forward on this?  Why are we actually forbidding the CDC to study this?

It's not about mental health care.  Sure, we need more there, but no amount of availability of treatment is going to prevent crazy.  Crazy happens, let's try to reduce the amount of access crazy has to automatic weapons, eh?  Then at least maybe if they go bonkers it'll be with something that kills fewer people a little less quickly.

If we're so worried about violating someone's second amendment rights, shouldn't we also be worried about other constitutional rights being violated?  What about the rights of the victims?  They were murdered.  Every single one of their constitutional rights, civil rights, human rights, were violated.

Where is their free speech?  Who speaks for them?

It is time.  It's time to change our culture.  It's time to change our laws.

Please write to your representatives and encourage them to support research into gun violence.
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