Counting Freedom

I hear lots of discussion of gun ownership as a function of "freedom." I suppose that "freedom" is the "freedom" to own a device capable of killing multiple people per minute?

Before getting into this discussion, a note about the 2nd Amendment. As the reader of this blog knows, I am an attorney; I have taken constitutional law; I have read the Constitution and its amendments more than once. Insofar as we discuss the 2nd Amendment, any argument that takes the general form of "the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed" does not warrant a response from me for this simple reason: If you, Mr. Pro Gun Rights, can read out of the 2nd Amendment the part about "well-regulated militia," then I, Mr. Gun Control, might as well read out the part about "not be infringed." Pure and simple.

Moving on.

People talk about "freedom" a lot. What about my freedoms? What about my freedom to send my kids to school, here in Speedway, and not have them come home with bullets in them? What about the freedom of those high school kids in Florida to get their education without getting shot at in the process? What about the churchgoers in Texas and their freedom to worship freely without being shot? Concert goers in Nevada? People in Orlando who simply wanted to go out for some drinks and dancing? Parents to send their small children to school without being slaughtered? People to go see a Batman movie without someone using the theater to "shoot fish in a barrel"?

Why is it that some guy's right to own a mass killing device (no doubt to compensate for the sub-standard size of his genitalia) trumps all of these peoples' right to simply live their lives without fear of being slaughtered?

Rights are constantly balanced. My right to due process is balanced against the State's rights to swift justice. My free-speech rights are curtailed in numerous ways . . . an obvious example is that I can't shout "FIRE!" in a crowded theater, thereby inducing a panic. The old saw is that my right to swing my fist through the air ends as soon as my fist hits your face.

Well, the gun ownership fist of society has repeatedly hit the face of society's citizenry that merely wants to live its life in peace. As a reminder, while there are more guns than people in America, only about 1/3 Americans own a gun and 3% of Americans own 50% of its guns.

I am tired of this. I am tired of seeing slaughter so often that I can't even remember all of the ones in the past year. I am terrified of having to explain to my 5-year-old son why he needs to be prepared for someone to walk into his school and try to shoot him.

My generation has allowed this debate to go so far off the rails. We expected our Baby Boomer parents to be able to do something about this. We were foolish. Our Baby Boomer parents have solved precisely zero problems during their tenure in charge, and they need to be replaced.

We are the adults now. We are the ones responsible for the direction of our community. If we continue to do nothing about the proliferation of guns in our society, we will have nobody to blame but ourselves as these mass shootings happen again and again and again and again and again and again . . .

I will have more on this.