http://www.bradycampaign.org/xshare/pdf/major-shootings.pdf — PAG
Yet Another Mass Shooting
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The Brady Campaign has good intentions but is somewhat misdirected in the execution of its plans.
Amending the US Constitution is a process that the founders envisioned and expected. The second amendment has been held to be a right to personally bear arms (Heller Case). In addition, there are many, many quotes from the founders that clearly indicate that the men who wrote the US Constitution believed that Americans should be able to arm themselves. However, they also believed that future generations should be able to “undo” the decisions the founders made in writing the US Constitution.
The big question for gun control advocates (and anti-abortionists for that matter) is why amending the US Constitution is considered impossible. I can only assume that gun control advocates (and anti-abortionists for that matter) consider our current national political class to be such a pack of worthless, useless, self-absorbed idiots that they could never be asked to use the amendment powers described in the US Constitution to amend the US Constitution.
If Americans want strict gun control – there is a clear process to achieving that objective. Amend the US Constitution and add more detail to the Second Amendment.
So, even in the immediate aftermath of a tragedy like the murders in Aurora, I have to ask a question – why is a constitutional amendment “off the table”? Do those who want stricter gun control believe that too few Americans would support that position? Or, do those who want stricter gun control believe that Americans would support that position but our corrupt political infrastructure will never allow it to happen?
This is really a very fundamental question about governance.
I would also cite Virginia’s idiotic love of Dillon’s Rule as an issue in this debate. The US Supreme Court Heller decision left quite a bit of room for regulation of guns. It was far from a “blank check” for regulators but it was also far from a sweeping endorsement of “any guns at any time to anyone”. In Northern Virginia, I believe a majority of people would support regulations on the stricter side of the Heller decision. I understand that elsewhere in Virginia people would endorse a broader interpretation of the Second Amendment. As I understand Heller – both are acceptable. However, Northern Virginia will likely never be able to implement its own philosophy of gun control. Why? Because the sons and daughters of b*&^%es who comprise the Virginia General Assembly believe that Richmond’s political class is better suited to make these decisions for the people of Northern Virginia than the people of Northern Virginia.
How odd that a Commonwealth founded by men who believed in personal freedom should now be run by a pack of jackasses who spend their political lives denying that personal freedom to the citizens of various regions of the Commonwealth.
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” The second amendment has been held to be a right to personally bear arms ”
I think the working definition of “arms” that the forefathers were working off of did not anticipate the eventual fire power of modern weapons.
this is a totally ridiculous argument. Do we allow the sale of automatic 40mm grenade launchers or 600-round per minute weaponry or motars or hellfire missiles?
of course not. Why? because we KNOW that that much firepower in the hands of someone who could “legally” buy them would slaughter hundreds.
so we play this little game of how much firepower is “ok” until 15 people are slaughtered and we repeat the natural hand-wringing over “how can we stop crazy people from slaughtering people”.
Of course the gun right folks will say that if enough people in the theater had guns, they could have taken out the crazy guy.
Can you imagine how many other crazy folks might also have guns in that scenario?
I’m not really advocating a position here as much as I am pointing out how irrational our current one is.
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And someone bound and determined to kill someone else is going to follow gun control laws. Right. Sarah Brady and Fred Hiatt believe. I agree with DJR – amend the Constitution if you want gun control. I find it very interesting how the pro-choice people (guns and abortion) tend to be totally intolerant of other people’s choices.
Home Rule – one of the biggest reasons the Dillon Rule lives and home rule doesn’t is the business community. Go to a Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce meeting and argue the Chamber should support home rule in its legislative program. Have someone able to drive you to the emergency room before you finish speaking. Business fears more regulation and higher taxes that would come if there was home rule. And most of all, adequate public facilities laws would pass in NoVA’s local jurisdictions. Dirt would no longer be sacred. The NoVA delegation, both Democrats and Republicans alike, would not vote for full home rule. They would not vote for a constitutional amendment that would repeal or grossly modify the Dillon Rule. This is not the fault of RoVA. Blame Jim Corcoran. Blame the real estate development industry. Blame the NoVA legislative delegation. But most of all, blame all of us who reside here.
So if one backs away from full home rule, we are just where we are today – a strong Dillon Rule state.
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The deep underlying problem here is Society’s current inability to get psychotics off the streets. The problem arose in the late 60’s, yet another LBJ initiative to create for us good citizens his version of a “GREAT SOCIETY.
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“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government”
— Thomas Jefferson, 1 Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334
“The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good”
— George Washington
“As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives [only] moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun, therefore, be the constant companion to your walks.”
— Thomas Jefferson, writing to his teenaged nephew.
“To disarm the people… was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”
— George Mason, speech of June 14, 1788
“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty teeth and keystone under independence … From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to insure peace, security and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable . . . the very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that is good” (George Washington)
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“Go to a Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce meeting and argue the Chamber should support home rule in its legislative program. Have someone able to drive you to the emergency room before you finish speaking. “.
Since I practice my second amendment rights, I doubt that I’ll ever need someone to take me to the emergency room based on the actions of others in response to something I said.
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“Since I practice my second amendment rights, I doubt that I’ll ever need someone to take me to the emergency room based on the actions of others in response to something I said.”
Needs no follow-up. Well stated.
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“Go to a Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce meeting and argue the Chamber should support home rule in its legislative program.”.
I really could care less about the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce. Really. As far as I know, I don’t know a soul on that Chamber and I don’t have any interest in meeting any of them.
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“Business fears more regulation and higher taxes that would come if there was home rule. And most of all, adequate public facilities laws would pass in NoVA’s local jurisdictions. Dirt would no longer be sacred.”.
So, Home Rule would be good for NoVa.
Now we are getting somewhere.
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“The NoVA delegation, both Democrats and Republicans alike, would not vote for full home rule. They would not vote for a constitutional amendment that would repeal or grossly modify the Dillon Rule.”.
I have never considered the NoVa members of the General assembly to be anything other than more Clowns in the Clown Show.
However, the overall Clown Show is an amazingly opaque body that consciously “stacks the deck” against change. There is a reason that Virginia has the least competitive state legislature elections in the United States and that’s not the doing of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce. It’s the doing of the embedded political elite in Richmond – regardless of where they may have originally come. For example, Janet Howell (from NoVa) is as much a member of the Richmond political elite as Nancy Pelosi (from CA) is a member of the Washington political elite.
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However, back to the tragedy in Aurora….
LarryG’s point about regulating over-powered weapons is both reasonable and (it seems to me) within the Heller opinion.
So, why doesn’t it happen?
Because the air headed General Assembly doesn’t see any problem with the widespread distribution of military grade weapons.
So, why don’t the localities that want to regulate weapons within the construct of the Heller opinion simply enact that legislation.
Because the good-for-nothing political elite in Richmond maintain a stranglehold on everybody in the state regardless of what the people in any one region may want.
The difference between NoVa and Henrico is simple. We don’t care if the people in Henrico walk down the street with machine guns and bandoleers of hand grenades. We think the people of Henrico should regulate themselves however they see fit. However, it seems that the people of Henrico believe that the General Assembly should hold everybody in the state under its yoke of oppression. Otherwise, the people of Henrico would support Home Rule.
In Virginia, there are the oppressors and the oppressed.
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We know there was private ownership of pistols and muskets at the time the Second Amendment was ratified. What about larger firearms, such as cannons? Were they all owned by government entities? Or did private individuals or groups thereof own them too? A bit of historical context might be useful.
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the forefathers INTENDED for people to be able to have parity with a govt they wanted to overthrow but their thinking was in the context of men fighting men in relatively close quarters where knives and clubs also has some level of parity with the gun weaponry.
The forefathers never even foresaw the devastation that a single Gatling gun could wreak much less a modern version of it that can fire 600 rounds of 20 mm bullets.
Imagine for a moment if the general populace WAS able to own weaponry roughly in parity with what the contemporary military had – based on the same rationale that the populace should be able to overthrow a tyrannical government.
Imagine what folks like the Colorado killer would accomplish if he had access legally to that kind of weaponry.
What the forefathers wanted with the 2nd amendment …if we really did it today…. what would that really mean? Imagine what a couple of kooks would do to Congress if they could get military grade weaponry in close proximity..
at some point, we have to stop pretending what the 2nd amendment means and get serious about allowing military-grade weaponry in the hands of kooks and wackos “legally”.
No other industrialized country plays this silly game that we do. Only 3rd world countries do.
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“How odd that a Commonwealth founded by men who believed in personal freedom should now be run by a pack of jackasses who spend their political lives denying that personal freedom to the citizens of various regions of the Commonwealth.”
I love you DJ!!!!!
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The founders of Virginia supported personal freedom for white Anglo-Saxon males belonging to the Anglican Church. One needs to leave the eastern seaboard and deep south to find states where there was a broader commitment to equality.
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But to add a point I have made before…
Home Rule states do not have it any better. The GA’s simply tell the localities what they can not do. Same donkey, different color. -
The tragedy in Colorado could have been prevented had the theatre alarmed its exit doors. When Holmes opened the door to return to his car to get his terror gear, the alarm would have sounded. A theatre employee could have shut the door, which was locked from the outside.
Second, do we really want rights dependent on whether you live in Fairfax or Fluvanna Counties?
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There is always some way that a mass murder using military grade weapons could have been avoided. Those preventions always seem to come up after the bodies are counted. Then, some new psycho finds a new way to commit mass murder.
As for Fairfax or Fluvanna – absolutely. I live a lot closer to the State of Maryland than Fluvanna County. The differences in regulation between Fairfax and Montgomery County, MD don’t bother me at all.
Finally, you don’t have a right to carry a semi-automatic, military grade pistol with 30 round clips. You have a right to bear arms.
From the majority opinion in Heller:
“Although we do not undertake an exhaustive historical analysis today of the full scope of the Second Amendment, nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”
I live in Fairfax County and see no valid reason to allow semi-automatic pistols with 30 round clips. I believe the vast majority of my fellow citizens in Fairfax County would agree. We would regulate the “right to bear arms” down to a reasonable clip limit – say eight bullets. Why isn’t that our perogative?
Right now, you can’t discharge a firearm outdoors in Fairfax County. Given the population density, I think that makes a lot of sense. Why should our rule on discharging firearms be forced on Fluvanna County? Why should Fluvanna’s rules be forced on us?
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re: “alarming/locking the door”
someone who wants to do something like this – finds out what the weaknesses are that he can exploit or he will find a place with weaknesses because it does not matter who the victims are as long as he wreak havoc.
the more “legal” weaponry he can buy and own – the greater the devastation he can inflict.
there is a reason why 2nd amendment rights are voided when you get on an airplane. I heard no 2nd amendment rights folks speaking in outrage about having their 2nd amendment rights taken away when they fly much less any of them idiotically surmising that the proper way to handle it is to let everyone be armed.
we are irrational about this.
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re: home rule vs dillon rule
Andrea is correct.
Home Rule is the Dillon Rule as a framework.
Home Rule allows the locality to do what is not explicitly prohibited – rather than anything they want.
The State legislature in Home Rule states, can and does update legislation if they feel Home Rule got too “creative”.
there is still a tight leash on localities.
Dillion, in Va actually allows localities to do things that many localities choose not to do.
NoVa has been allowed to levy an income tax to build transportation infrastructure but to date has chosen not to do it.
Localities in Va are allowed to levy BPOL and Machinery taxes and the like and many localities choose not to.
It would be interesting to have a list of enabling legislation that is not exercised by localities.
It would also be interesting to see a list of things Fairfax and NoVa would like to be able to do but cannot do right now.
I’m betting that it’s a short list along the lines of being able to keep all taxes generated in NoVa rather than sending them to Richmond.
HA HA HA – not even Home Rule states allow that!!!!
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“The State legislature in Home Rule states, can and does update legislation if they feel Home Rule got too “creative”.”.
Not necessarily true. Home rule can be implemented by legislation or enshrined in the state’s constitution. In the latter case, the state legislature has no power to reverse any rights granted to localities through the constitution.
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Wasn’t the second amendment designed to be collective defense, effective quantity vs. quality?
Don’t you find it odd that our own government freely supplies foreign citizens with arms that are illegal for our own citizens to possess?
In a world where we vote for people who we know less than nothing about, is a US version of Assad really such an improbability? Or have we been lucky?
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Darrell – Don’t term limits generally prevent an American version of Assad? However, the term limits only apply to the chief executive (at both the national level and the state level in Virginia). The American corollary to an Assad is a permanent and corrupt legislature which enriches itself by providing subsidies to special interests.
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