"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."
Why do we need guns? Better yet, what gives us the right to have guns? All roads lead to the 2nd Amendment.
In a time when gun violence permeates our lives daily, it's necessary to take a look at what the 2nd Amendment really means. Would the men who crafted it be proud of our nation's present-day gun policies?
The 2nd Amendment was added to our Constitution in 1791 almost 225 years ago.
Why does it matter that it was adopted so long ago? Aren't guns just as necessary and as much of an inalienable right today as they were back in the 18th century?
The answer is a resounding no. The wording of the 2nd Amendment is important. "A well regulated Militia..." was the original justification for the right to own a gun.
The reason the 2nd Amendment was put in place is because during the time it was drafted, the United States had just won the Revolutionary War. This very successful uprising would not have been possible if the people of the American colonies did not have access to arms. So, when drafting what would be part of the ten initial rights guaranteed to each citizen of the newly-founded United States of America, of course, the right to bear and keep arms was included.
Flash forward nearly 225 years, and here we are in 2015 with a new mass shooting happening seemingly every day.
San Bernadino, Colorado Springs, Umpqua Community College, Chattanooga, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Ft. Hood, Aurora, Sandy Hook... the list goes on and on.
Why are we as a nation so fixated on the right to bear arms? Because it was insured to us in the Constitution?
Let me mention something else that was in the Constitution that we've decided needed to be changed -- the three-fifths clause. Oh you know, the part in the Constitution where it states that African Americans and others who were brought to America as slaves only counted as three-fifths of a person? That's in the Constitution. But as time went on and we progressed as a society, we removed the three-fifths clause. Because it's absurd to think of any person as only three-fifths of a human being.
Why can't we do this with the 2nd Amendment? Are we so self-centered and fixated on power that we think having guns is imperative to our identities? How do we allow 20 children to be slaughtered in Connecticut while we as a nation still cling to the 2nd Amendment for dear life?
There have been 12,311 gun-related deaths in the U.S. so far this year. Gun violence is preventable. It's time we take a hard look at the 2nd Amendment and decide if "the right to bear arms" is really worth it.
