Does the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence have any meaning for our elected legislators? By their inaction, are they accomplices to killings?
We hold these truths to be self-evident (not needing to be demonstrated or explained, obvious) that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights (absolute, impossible to take away), and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Ironically, the first right listed is "life."
Unfortunately, in the US, we have allowed the National Rifle Association, through its lobbying efforts, to take away the right to "life" by promoting a stream of commerce for the sale of deadly military-style weapons - designed to take away life. Moreover, responsible and with blood on their hands, our elected congressional representatives ignore the truths of our Preamble. Their legislative inaction removes the unalienable right to life by making it legal to possess military-style killing weapons.
These are not, as some have suggested, hunting weapons. These military-style weapons are designed to tear up flesh and rip apart bodies.
So, the terms self-evident and absolute right to life as outlined in our Preamble become hollow and meaningless for countless of those we elected. We can fix the problem through the ballot box. Those elected officials supporting military-style gun rights while using opinion as a replacement for facts must be defeated. Regrettably, our elected representatives, based on personal opinions, are operating on loose thoughts and speculation. Vote!
Johnny Jones
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Johnny Jones, the first three paragraphs of your opinion letter are absolute truth and articulated in a wonderful manner. In my opinion, and obviously I have many, after that you went straight down hill in your argument. Allow me to explain why I believe this.
In the past 50 years how many American lives have been taken (killed) by a military style assault rifle. I change your word weapon to rifle because most citizens who own any semiautomatic rifle own it for reasons other than killing. I’m assuming you mean the killing of humans since we are the ones protected by the preamble to our constitution, rather than deer, bear, elk or even wild boar.
I challenge you to state the number of humans killed in the USA in the past 50 years by any semiautomatic firearm, rifle or otherwise. If you do state the number, you will be admitting that exponentially more human lives have been taken, more than 500 times more lives, by Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers. What are your thoughts about 63,000,000 lives being denied life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Please step off the “turn our guns into plow sheers” bandwagon and get on the one that is now going to save lives. Thank you SCOTUS for realizing this and for not taking my legitimate rights of gun ownership away.
J. Pat Williams
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Why play recklessly with numbers, J., in your defense of automatic weapons? The concerns are as they should be today. Automatic weapons and high-powered rifles have become the new weapons of choice involving mass shootings in these times. Automatic, semi-automatic, whatever--these weapons have the potential to cause most damage to the body.
Semi-automatic weapons were used in the Columbine massacre over 20 years ago. Two years or more before the Columbine massacre, and after noticing how citizens in her Colorado town were openly and brazenly walking around with their guns, the wife of a known actor had such a dire premonition for what was to come that she packed up her family, leaving the U.S. to return to her native country.
Where does it all end? How will it all end? During the lockdown in 2020, an anti-lockdown protestor taking a break from protesting in North Carolina was seen on video entering a subway with a T4-20 cm-rocket launcher strapped to his back. Rocket launcher? What next? Nuclear weapon?
These weapons now in the hands of just about anyone who can afford to buy them have the advantage of taking out large numbers of citizens with little or no effort and can be carried out by one person. They're not the "muskets" in use when the Second Amendment was written.
The majority of mass shooters aren't mentally ill, according to the FBI and Psychology Today. They just have an already anxious dark side that's easy to manipulate by powerful culprits hiding in the shadows giving orders. Those cold shadowy hands behind the scene know the right buttons to push.
Brenda Washington