Archive for the ‘Second Amendment’ Category

Does Second Amendment rhyme with freedom? – Waite Park Newsleader

Following the school shooting in Nashville, State Rep. Tim Burchett (Tenn., District 2) went viral for making comments like were not gonna fix it criminals are gonna be criminals and mentioning how his father, a World War II veteran, told him if somebody wants to take you out, and doesnt mind losing their life, theres not a whole heck of a lot you can do about it. Burchett also explained Americas high level of gun violence by stating Other countries dont have our level of freedom either.

Comparing the war in the Pacific in 1944 to an elementary school today is both inaccurate and deeply concerning. Its inaccurate since war is a situation where it is permissible to kill others to achieve an objective that is ideally worth more than the lives it will take. Elementary school is not a place where adages about war should be applied, especially if its to dismiss what we could do to prevent such violence. The fact some think such adages are appropriate shows the current situation is untenable.

Furthermore, what does freedom mean in Burchetts mind? Does it mean other countries do not have a constitutional right to bear arms? If so, he is mostly correct. In every other regard, however, other Western countries freedoms stack up to the U.S. exceed it perhaps, since one cannot effectively exercise their freedoms while suffering or dying from a debilitating gunshot wound.

The right to bear arms is a questionable measure of freedom. I am not here to say guns should be banned outright. Although I wish I could snap my fingers and have all weapons designed to eliminate humans disappear, there are far too many firearms to properly regulate. However, that does not mean we should sweep aside smaller, phased goals. For now, a more serious discussion about banning assault rifles, or about banning future commercial sales of these weapons, needs to occur.

I will admit right here I know way too little about hand-held firearms to properly engage in this debate. Rep. Burchett is right when he says criminals are going to find a way around existing laws to acquire guns, so I believe we should make the deadliest guns as scarce as possible to decrease the chances they would fall into the wrong hands. My current opinion is assault rifles, and eventually all assault weapons, should be banned. The same goes for accessories like high-capacity magazines, which are useful for a shooter trying to kill as many people as possible, but dead weight while defending against one or two attackers at home or in public. The police, of course, will still have access to the weapons they need to protect against and respond to threats.

Increased numbers of school resource officers or other armed guards may act as a stopgap, but an expensive one at that, especially considering there is little evidence of their presence deterring attacks. At Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida and in other major school shootings in 2018 where an SRO or guard was present, the shooter was stopped by the guard or SRO in zero cases. That is certainly not to say there are not heroic SROs or guards out there who could prove quite effective, but considering the number we would need relative to the number of school shootings (way too high to be acceptable, but too low to start treating American schools like forward operating bases in an active war zone), this should not be our end goal. Shortening active shooter incidents would be great but preventing them would be even better.

My main issue, however, is this debate is not happening in the manner it should. People are making uninformed comments that do not address other peoples points. At the congressional level, we have the NRA to thank for that, but at the personal level, we should stop using blanket statements to shut down our opponents arguments.

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Does Second Amendment rhyme with freedom? - Waite Park Newsleader

Editorial: Why ‘Second Amendment people’ should be at the … – Wyoming Tribune

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Editorial: Why 'Second Amendment people' should be at the ... - Wyoming Tribune

Letter: We need to limit or repeal the 2nd Amendment – The Westerly Sun

We cannot ignore mass shootings. We are, none of us, safe anywhere. Even most gun owners are willing to limit and restrict guns to increase public safety.

Whenever public attention for gun control increases, silly season for some gun advocates begins. Using the word enshrined, they describe the Second Amendment like a religious relic. Enshrined means revered as a sacred object. The founders wrote the Second Amendment into the Constitution. They did not enshrine it.

The preamble to the Constitution begins, We the people to form a more perfect Union. It tells us that no one part of the Constitution is sacred by itself because our union is imperfect, and we can therefore improve it. Immediately after writing the Constitution, the founders, striving for a more perfect union, amended the Constitution and contisnued the process 27 times. Congress repealed one of the 27 amendments. The 21st repealed the 18th Amendment Prohibition, a bad idea. State and federal legislatures have limited and restricted some of the remaining amendments. Legislatures have limited our Fifth Amendment right to due process with tort reforms. Recently, legislatures in some states are limiting First Amendment rights by banning books from libraries.

We can limit or repeal the Second Amendment because it is no different from other amendments. Guns are causing chaos in society and undermining domestic tranquility. The Second Amendment was a bad idea. Slave states feared slave rebellions. They refused to ratify the Constitution without the right to bear arms. So, the founders added it to the Constitution. In recent years, the NRA and Republican Party corrupted the Second Amendment into a worse idea. We can strive toward a more perfect union to insure domestic tranquility, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves. We can do this by limiting or repealing the Second Amendment.

Joseph Sciarillo

Westerly

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Letter: We need to limit or repeal the 2nd Amendment - The Westerly Sun

Editorial: Keeping guns out of dangerous hands doesn’t weaken Second Amendment – WRAL News

CBC Editorial: Wednesday, April 19, 2023; editorial #8842

The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company

It is only common sense to most North Carolinians, that before someone can buy a handgun whether from a federally-licensed firearms dealer, a vendor at a gun show or even an acquaintance -- theres a check to be sure that person isnt:

Common sense.

Common sense.

Lobbyist Caldwells support for permit repeal and Blackwoods acceptance isnt shared by all sheriffs.

Why isnt it common sense among our legislators to do MORE, not less, so guns dont get into the hands of those who we know will make our communities more dangerous?

Capitol Broadcasting Company's Opinion Section seeks a broad range of comments and letters to the editor. Our Comments beside each opinion column offer the opportunity to engage in a dialogue about this article.

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Editorial: Keeping guns out of dangerous hands doesn't weaken Second Amendment - WRAL News

Ralph Yarl, Kaylin Gillis and other senseless shootings rattle US – BBC

21 April 2023

Image source, Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post

A March 2023 protest against gun violence in Denver, Colorado.

Ringing the wrong doorbell.

Driving up the wrong road.

Approaching the wrong car.

Losing a ball in a neighbour's yard.

These are the common mistakes for which everyday Americans have been shot over the past seven days - one of them as young as six.

Rather than mass shootings, it is these smaller incidents that account for a majority of firearms deaths and injuries in the US. And this week illustrated how these isolated acts accumulate into a larger portrait of gun violence in America.

"The main type of incidents that we have are one or two people get shot," said Mark Bryant, director of the Gun Violence Archive. They have calculated 165 mass shootings so far this year, but thousands of smaller incidents.

But an average of 50 people die each day in the United States from non-suicide gun incidents, and roughly 100 are injured, according Mr Bryant and the Gun Violence Archive.

Mass shootings are a small amount of the overall gun violence incidents in the country, he said. Those large casualty events "get extra attention", but make up only about 6% of total injuries and deaths.

Instead, many are stories like that of Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old black teenage boy from Missouri, who was shot and wounded by a white homeowner after he mistakenly rang the man's doorbell on 13 April.

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Watch: Ralph's mother, Cleo Nagbe, says her son's injuries will stay with him

Or Kaylin Gillis, a 20-year-old woman shot and killed on 15 April when she and her friends mistakenly drove up the wrong driveway in New York state and a homeowner opened fire.

Or two high school cheerleaders who approached the wrong car in a Texas parking lot on 18 April, only for a man to get out and start firing and seriously wound one of them.

Or a six-year-old girl and her father in North Carolina, who were shot on 18 April after police say their basketball rolled into the alleged shooter's yard.

"The bullet came back and the bullet went in my cheek," the small girl told a local news station.

And those are just the stories that made national headlines.

"Gun violence touches every community in some way shape or form, even if it's less visible than some large mass shooting," said Kelly Drane, the law centre research director for gun safety advocacy group Giffords.

"It has felt very real to a lot of people this week: gun violence happens across our country every day," she said. "It takes an enormous toll on this nation."

Not all American communities are impacted equally; black people die due to firearms at higher rates than any other racial or ethnic group in the US. Firearm-related deaths rose sharply among black and Hispanic children during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The shootings take place against a backdrop of increasingly polarised debates over access to and use of guns in the United States. Supporters of gun rights argue for fewer restrictions for purchasing, using, and carrying firearms, while proponents for gun safety continue to push for rules that limit access.

The Second Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees Americans the right to firearms, though to what degree is a matter of heated political and legal debate.

Conservatives, who often support Second Amendment rights, place the blame for gun violence on a broader mental health crisis or increased crime. Liberals, who tend to favour stricter gun regulation, point to levels of access to firearms in the US as the cause of the violence.

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Watch: How Republicans intend to solve mass shootings

As of 20 April 2023, 12,719 people have died so far this year in gun violence incidents, according to data provided by the Gun Violence Archive. Their methodology includes a broad range of incidents, including accidents, officer involved shootings, armed robberies, mass shootings, familicide, murder, and defensive gun use.

Since 13 April, the day Ralph Yarl visited the wrong house, there have been 845 gun-related incidents in the United States, according to preliminary data from the Gun Violence Archive.

A small fraction of these incidents did not involve any shots fired, such as one 13 April incident where an adult left a loaded gun in the bathroom of an Atlanta, Georgia, primary school.

Overall, those 845 incidents led to 743 injuries and 328 deaths.

Next week, there will be more.

Chelsea Bailey, Brandon Drenon and Madeline Halpert contributed to this report.

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Ralph Yarl, Kaylin Gillis and other senseless shootings rattle US - BBC