It’s All Rights and No Accountability

Well that was a close one.

The Manchin-Toomey 2^nd Amendment Preservation Bill was filibustered by Republicans and Democrats alike in the US Senate yesterday. The bill to partially tighten controls over gun ownership will not come to the Senate floor for debate. Not now anyway.

And I can’t be more relieved.

The bill was flawed at its inception in that it only slightly extended the number of gun exchange events that would require a criminal/mental background check. Adam Lanza would still have had his mama’s Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle available to him to shoot his mother, twenty babies and six educators if this bill were law before Sandy Hook happened.

The bill was touted by its authors as a bill to guarantee 2^nd Amendment rights, and I completely believe it. It makes gun ownership more palatable. It puts some accountability in the system. But this week the Senate voted yes on opaque gun ownership and no on accountability.

And that suits me just fine.

You see, this hardline stance will one day blow up in the faces of gun nuts. We will continue to see death and carnage with the gun lobby enabling wanton and bloody behavior. Someday, I think, someone is going to say “Enough” and really mean it. Someone is going to take another look at the 2^nd Amendment and see it for what it is, the only right that is a conditional right.

The right is conditional. The first clause in the 2^nd Amendment says it all. The truth in the late 18^th century was that a “well-regulated militia” actually was necessary for the security of the nation. The militia helped kick the British out of the Colonies. But there are no more well-regulated militias anymore. They are as extinct as the dodo bird. Therefore, one could argue, the only reason to include a right to bear arms in our constitution is no longer a reason.

We need to repeal the 2^nd Amendment or reword it. I like this wording.

“Since a well-regulated militia is no longer necessary for the security of the nation, but people still do have the right to life, no private individual has the right to keep and bear arms.”