The recent shooting at a Kroger supermarket in Tennessee is only one of many violent gun incidents that have occurred since the Columbine massacre in 1999. Whether these shootings were the work of deranged or bullied individuals or of domestic terrorists, one thing is certain: It’s too damn easy to get a gun in the US. What’s more, that Second Amendment “freedom” is a house built of straw.
There’s a major misconception about what the Second Amendment means, and gun fanatics in the NRA and around the country are propagating this myth like it were the gospel of St. John. Judge Antonia Scalia cherry-picked historical records from the founding period of this country to “prove” that amendment means that all Americans have the right to own guns, or, as they interpret it the Loco Lone Star State, the biggest fascist state in America, Americans have the right to carry everywhere without penalties (so they can act as vigilantes to bring all those terrible abortion criminals to justice?). In many states you can even carry your gun into a supermarket (maybe Kroger doesn’t like that policy?).
What Scalia hid was that most references in that database he searched provide evidence for a more literal meaning of the Second Amendment (he wasn’t stupid, so he did this on purpose): Only militias have the right to arm themselves. That was because local militias had been so important in the fight for the nation’s independence from England. Today we now call those militias National Guards, and the word “militia” now means a group of right-wing fanatics (like those who tried to stage a coup on January 6 at the Capitol).
A lot of fanatical gun owners are mental cases: Males seeing a gun as an extension of their manhood, females seeing guns as a substitute for it, and all addicted to that powerful feeling of knowing they can kill at will anything, anywhere. You can see it in their eyes at gun shows and gun ranges where the fanatics go to be with their fellow fanatics. Their fascination with guns is like most addictions. Once hooked, they can’t give it up. Rehab won’t help these addicts.
Most cops in the US today, conservatives or progressives, believe there are too many damn guns. They don’t care about the Second Amendment; they care about people killing other people, including cops. And states interpret that Second Amendment differently (and never correctly!)—just compare the Loco Lone Star state with New York state! Red is appropriate for most southern states like Tennessee and Texas because of all the red blood spilled in gun violence there! And, it’s a fact, those guns in blue states are usually imported, often illegally, from the red states that have lax gun laws. Guns used by NYC gangs usually have their provenance in southern states.
The NRA was crowing victory over President Biden after he pulled the Chapman nomination as ATF head. Actually, the only thing this victory represents is that the NRA has many fascist members of Congress, especially in the Senate, in their pockets. Despite all the corruption in the NRA’s leaders (surprised?), those congressional fascists are adicted to the NRA’s blood money.
Scalia was a judicial hero for the fascist NRA members, but his interpretation of the Second Amendment was based on biased information gathered by him! It’s time we corrected that myth and outlaw guns. Period! Other civilized countries have done that, even England who our founding fathers fought. It’s time that the US ceases being the wild, wild west, even in the Loco Lone Star State.