February 1, 2013 6:27 AM

The 2nd Amendment: time to bring it into the 21st century

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.

That, ladies and gentlmen, is the sum total of the 2nd Amendment. One sentence. Twenty-six of the most frequently and conveniently misinterpreted words in the history of the Republic. Seldom has such a vague, over-generalized pronouncement been the cause of so much Sturm und Drang. Those 26 words, written almost 250 years ago, frame an intense debate on the role and necessity of guns in our society. That it’s seen as sacrosanct, unalterable, and immutable by so many gun aficionados only serves to show how deliberately and conveniently the 2nd Amendment can be misinterpreted by those pursuing their own narrow agenda.

I’ve heard far too many who cling to their guns attempt to define their 2nd Amendment rights as their “birthright.”. It’s no more a birthright than we still need the sort of citizen militia that was de riguer in the latter stages of the 18th century. Nowhere in those 26 words is it stated- implicitly or directly- that accumulating as much firepower as one desires is a “birthright,” or even a right. If you read the 2nd Amendment honestly, it’s no more a license to stockpile massive deadly firepower than it is for Liberals like me to pass legislating confiscating weaponry. (My own personal bias is that I’d like to do exactly that, but I understand it will never happen…and so I’ll settle for common sense gun control.)

And why is it that gun nuts blithely gloss over the “well regulated militia” part of the 2nd Amendment? The reality is that the 2nd Amendment is an outdated construct that has no modern application. The 2nd Amendment was promulgated in a world very different from our own. The weapon of choice tended to be a musket, which was clumsy, inaccurate, and painfully time-consuming to reload. That was why the standard British infantry tactic at the time was to fight in rows. Upon the command to fire, the front row would kneel, take aim, fire, and then retreat to the back row of soldiers, usually 3-4 rows deep. An infantryman would use his time in the rear to reload and ready his weapon for the next time he was called upon to fire.

Muskets were clumsy and horribly inaccurate (with the barrel’s smooth bore, a round left the muzzle like a knuckle ball). Even the best shot could count on being accurate only to perhaps 100-150 yards.

Nearly 250 years later, we live in a world where accuracy and lethality have improved by unimaginable orders of magnitude. We no longer count on a citizen militia to protect our freedom. With that in mind, you’d think that our need for, and interpretation of, the 2nd Amendment would have also changed significantly, right? You might, except for the caterwauling emanating from the gun nuts who value firepower over human life. As a result, politicians (whose balls are collectively stored in Wayne LaPierre’s desk drawer) are terrified of the NRA and have consistently declined to do anything that might reduce gun violence.

The best and most effective move (that will never happen) would be to get rid of the 2nd Amendment and replace it with something that actually has some application in the 21st century. Or are we really to be expected to be OK with a legal system that allows civilians to own assault weapons, high-capacity clips, and even rocket launchers? I think the gun nuts and the paranoid conspiracy theorists at the NRA have made them abundantly clear on that question.

WE DESERVE BETTER.

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About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on February 1, 2013 6:27 AM.

Gun nuts: Now available in all shapes, sizes, and genders was the previous entry in this blog.

The NRA strategy: They can't debate if they're dead is the next entry in this blog.

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