Gilbert Randolph, writing in the UKMC University News, has delusions of being the voice of sweet reason is yet another gun control debate. Sadly, he’s just another idiot.
“I hope to reframe our current political discourse and put it into the historical, even global context of human violence.”
How well does Mr. Randolph manage that? From the beginning, he displays an unfortunate lack of knowledge of firearms- their design, intent, and use.
“Guns are designed to kill. That isn’t inherently evil. Bows were designed to kill. The teeth of wolves are designed to kill. It’s the usage of that ability that has moral and social implications.”
No. Guns are mechanical/chemical devices designed to direct a projectile at a target. The vast majority of targets outside of a war zone are paper.
“Guns are inherently dangerous. Does it then follow that danger is inherently evil or at the very least, needing to be tightly controlled?”
No. TATP, FOOF, and old nitroglycerin are inherently dangerous. They are so unstable as to spontaneously explode.
A firearm requires some external force in order to activate. Typically, that is a person pulling the trigger, although there are rare cases where indirect human stupidity does the job, or a critter. But the firearm is still an inanimate device; of its own, it does nothing, and never chooses its target. Never once, in decades of firearms experience, has one of my firearms spontaneously discharged.
Randolph’s ignorance extends to the Second Amendment he pretends to understand so much better than “the far right.”
“When neighborhoods are controlled by violent gangs, such as the cartels in Mexico and other nations, the power is merely transferred. The danger of someone else is also not without problems. What happens when that person abuses their power? Then there is a demand that we become dangerous to the institutions we set up to protect us.
This paradox seems to me to be the heart of the Second Amendment. I suggest that whatever route we choose, regulation or deregulation, we always remember these tensions.”
That is the very heart of the Second Amendment: That the power be distributed amongst all the People, not concentrated in one power group.
As for “discourse” on the regulation of firearms…
We’ve had that discussion. In 1776 — two hundred and forty years ago — George Mason drafted the “Declaration of Rights” for Virginia, which included the people’s individual right to keep and bear arms. It was debated and adopted by the state. Eleven years later, Mason drafted the original Bill of Rights based on Virginia’s Declaration. It was debated, refined, and approved by the Constitutional Convention. From there, it –completed with the Second Amendment — was sent to the states for further discussion. The nation agreed to it and formally adopted it. In the time since, every state admitted to the union has specifically agreed to and adopted the US Constitution complete with the Second Amendment.
If that weren’t sufficient for Randolph, we have the the US Supreme Court’s Miller decision that the people have a right to bear arms of common military type. We have the Heller decision that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right. If that still isn’t clear enough (and for Chicago it wasn’t), the McDonald decision expressly stated that the right to keep and bear arms applies to all the individual people of all the states. And it extends to US Territories, too.
End of discourse. Unless you plan to amend the Constitution again, to rid us of that troubling human/civil right. Be careful what you wish for.
But good luck with that. The late Major R. Owens [Dimwit-NY] made an annual attempt at the discourse of repeal. Upon discussion in the House, it was likewise annually rejected. (I do give him partial credit for recognizing that there is a Constitution, even if he hated it.)
End. Of. Discourse.
Ed. note: This commentary appeared first in TZP’s weekly email alert. If you would like to be among the first to see new commentary (as well as to get notice of new polls and recaps of recent posts), please sign up for our alert list. (See sidebar or, if you’re on a mobile device, scroll down). Be sure to respond when you receive your activation email!
