At the time of writing this letter, Americans have witnessed 259 mass shootings, in which 334 people were killed and 1,173 injured. And that’s just this year. Why? We have too many guns in this country, enough so that every man, woman and child could have at least one.
Can we stop gun violence? Gun control doesn’t work, or so says our distinguished former president, with whom the National Rifle Association agrees. Besides, they say, gun control is unconstitutional.
They’re referring, of course, to the Second Amendment, that model of clumsy writing, which states, “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.” The two clauses of that Amendment were always read together until Justice Scalia, in a 2008 Supreme Court opinion, gave the second clause a life of its own.
Fareed Zakaria, perhaps our most astute journalist, recently noted that homicide rates in Britain, which has strict gun control laws, are 1 percent of ours. Surely we aren’t that much crazier than Brits.
The Second Amendment, which is basically obsolete, should be restricted to its original purpose: organized self-defense. Legislation to that effect would reduce gun violence enormously.
