Note: This article was originally published in the Spirit of Jefferson on February 15, 2018.
Gun advocates seem increasingly resistant, even immune, to the social disease of mass killings, such as the Douglas High School shooting on Valentine’s Day (at least 17 killed). For example, WV house bill, HB 4298 with nine Republican and two Democratic sponsors, has the purpose of denying colleges and universities the right to keep lawfully purchased concealed guns off campus. The title of the proposed law is the “Campus Self Defense Act.” It could as well and more honestly be called the “Campus Gun Slingers Act.” The inaction of these NRA-bought legislators, who after each shooting offer us nothing other than prayers for the victims, is testament to how they’ve inoculated themselves against passing even the most minimal controls. The proposed ban on bump stocks, which initially had some bipartisan support after the Las Vegas shooting (59 killed), for instance has gone nowhere in Congress.
Instead, the majority of Americans who advocate for greater gun control are being guilted into buying the hype of 2nd Amendment advocates that guns protect, not destroy. It is as if a trust in the Gun Amendment is definitional to being a true, patriotic American. As if proponents believe it the most important one of the Bill of Rights. All the others pale in comparison. I absolutely reject that argument. I’m a patriotic American, but not because of the 2nd Amendment.
I believe along with other gun control advocates that the 2nd Amendment has been drastically misinterpreted by the Supreme Court. It was, remember, merely one vote in the Court’s 5-4 split decision that has abetted these killings and made future killings inevitable. It was one vote that has turned our congress spineless. It was just one vote by one justice, one citizen, one gun advocate. That’s certainly not a convincing example of the infallibility of the Court’s decision-making process and decidedly not a strong enough decision to establish a criterion for patriotism.
It is instead an argument that the WV legislature should give more thought to the harm that making weapon bans illegal can cause. HB 4298 is headed to the Education Committee. It should die there in reverent memory of the Sandy Hook Elementary School killings (26 killed, including 20 first graders). Legislate for victims, for change, for a change.