[videowaywire video_id=”2680E9D852A6C08B”]
*The Preamble is useful in identifying the ‘spirit’ of the United States Constitution. One of the lines contained in it ‘insure domestic tranquility’ is central to the whole gun control debate – the dichotomy of whether more guns would deter crime on the one end, or less guns and stricter laws would help stem the tide of gun violence on the other.
When the second amendment was written our Founding Fathers no doubt were mindful of the effectiveness of the militia that helped win the Revolutionary War against the outside enemy Great Britain. The right to bear arms made complete sense.
However, they could not in a million years have imagined the horrors we’re seeing today in cases like the Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, and Newtown massacres – let alone the daily gun violence in inner cities like Chicago. It’s as if America is turning on itself.
The state of tranquility is defined as serene and free from agitation or other disturbances. That could be either internal or external. Newtown was one of those places until that fateful morning, and now no matter where the parents of those 20 children go – even to the most serene place on earth – they will ever be disturbed by the sad memory of how their child was mowed down by a crazed gunman. The memory of how my own son was killed in an auto accident still causes me to shudder even after many years. His little six-year-old body was so maimed that the funeral was closed-casket. He was snatched away from me just as those Newtown children were from their parents, so I can empathize and sympathize.
Another Preamble line, ‘provide for the common defense’ has been established – we have the strongest and most advanced military on the globe. That being the case, why is a segment of Americans so bent on protecting themselves from the government? That’s been the absurd argument of some gun owners and proponents of the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) position, and I have yet to hear one plausible reason why. What can a private citizens’ small arsenal do against high-tech gadgets that can be launched to hit their targets with pinpoint accuracy? All the government would have to do is make an example out of a few insurgent compounds and the rest would think twice. The focus and energy used for an uprising contingency could be better used by persistently and consistently taking elected officials to task demanding that they do what they are elected and getting paid to do.
Remember in the movie ‘Tombstone’ where Virgil Earp (actor Sam Elliott, ) made up his mind to be sworn in as a lawman? He had just snatched a child out of harm’s way of wild cowboys on horseback randomly shooting their guns. He straightaway established gun control with an ordinance that gun owners check in their guns when they come to town. He was reluctant to take the job – as many are now reluctant to take a first step towards gun control – but was compelled to make the sacrifice if but for nothing more than the safety of little children. That movie scene is symbolic of what we should be willing to do today. Children need to feel safe.
Why are we Americans so obsessed with guns? Are they the answer to everything? Let’s try a test. After each line of the Preamble (below), I have added the suffix ‘with our guns’ to see how it sounds when spoken out loud:
[We the People of the United States (with our guns), in order to form a more perfect union (with our guns), establish justice (with our guns), insure domestic tranquility (with our guns), provide for the common defense (with our guns), promote the general welfare (with our guns), and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity (with our guns), do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America (with our guns).]
There’s been too much bloodshed, too many tears and heartbreaks for us to continue down a path of destruction that will only get worse. The ‘blessings of liberty’ come with a price and we are all in this together. A house divided against itself will not stand. If we really love our children as we say we do, what will the landscape look like in 10 or 15 years if we don’t act now to curb the violence?
One explanation of ‘insuring domestic tranquility’ states in part that ‘the Federal Government owes a duty to maintenance law and peace within the country with the help of the executive branch. It aims at avoiding chaos and rebellion against the public and helps preserve family life and its attendant rights.’
We have a gun violence epidemic that has become a public health issue and it is up to the Federal Government to restore law and peace, not the NRA.
From the forthcoming book titled “Book To The Future” by author Larry S. Buford. Contact (213) 220-8101; e-mail: [email protected]
We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!
