Category Archives: Second Amendment

A year ago, Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives staged a sit-in demanding a vote on federal gun-safety bills following the shootings at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. The National Rifle Associations lobbying was largely blamed for no vote happening. But looking deeper, the Second Amendment, with the unique American individualism wrapped around it, underlies all. It is Americas fundamental gun problem.

As Michael Waldman at the Brennan Center for Justice suggests in Politico Magazine, the NRAs construing of the Second Amendment as an unconditional right to own and carry guns (a right beyond actual constitutional law in Supreme Court rulings) is why it thrives and has clout.

Without clout derived from Second Amendment hyperbole, we might not have, for instance, stand your ground laws in more than 20 states starting with Florida in 2005, laws that professors Cheng Cheng and Mark Hoekstra report in the Journal of Human Resources do not deter crime and are associated with more killing.

Pockets of America were waiting for the NRAs Second Amendment fertilizer.

For many gun advocates, the gun is an important aspect of ones identity and self-worth, a symbol of power and prowess in their cultural groups. Dan Kahan at Yale University with co-investigators studied gun-safety perceptions and wrote in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies how those most likely to see guns as safest of all were the persons who need guns the most in order to occupy social roles and display individual virtues within their cultural communities.

Or, as the essayist Alec Wilkinson writes more starkly on The New Yorkers website, although the (gun) issue is treated as a right and a matter of democracy underlying all is that a gun is the most powerful device there is to accessorize the ego.

A gun owner carrying his semiautomatic long rifle into a family department store, like Target, in a state permitting such if asked why will likely say because it is his right. He is unlikely to reveal the self-gratification gained from demonstrating the prowess and power of his identity, gained from using the gun to accessorize the ego. The Second Amendment here is convenient clothing to cover deeper unspoken needs, needs that go beyond the understandable pleasures and functions of typical hunting, for instance.

Australia is often mentioned as an example of nationwide gun-safety legislation reducing gun violence. Following the 1996 massacre of 35 people in Port Arthur, Australia, the government swiftly passed substantial gun-safety legislation. And as Professors Simon Chapman, Philip Alpers and Michael Jones wrote in JAMAs June 2016 issue, (F)rom 1979-1996 (before gun law reforms), 13 fatal mass shootings occurred in Australia, whereas from 1997 through May 2016 (after gun-law reforms), no fatal mass shootings occurred.

But Australia also has nothing akin to the Second Amendment.

Anthropologist Abigail Kohn studied gun owners in the U.S. and Australia who were engaged in sport shooting. She describes in the Journal of Firearms and Public Policy (2004) how it is immediately apparent when speaking to American shooters that they find it impossible to separate their gun ownership, even their interest in sport shooting, from a particular moral discourse around self, home, family, and national identity.

And thus, American shooters are hostile to gun control because just as guns represent freedom, independence the best of American core values gun control represents trampling on those core values.

In contrast, the Australians view guns as inseparable from shooting sports. And perhaps most importantly, Australian shooters believe that attending to gun laws, respecting the concept of gun laws, is a crucial part of being a good shooter; this is the essence of civic duty that Australian shooters conflate with being a good Australian. While the Australian shooters thought some gun-safety policies were useless and stupid, they thought that overall gun-safety measures were a legitimate means by which the government can control the potential violence that guns can do.

Unlike Australia (itself an individualist-oriented country), America has the Second Amendment. And that amendment has fostered a unique individualism around the gun, an individualism perpetrating more harm than safety.

Maybe someday the Second Amendment will no longer reign as a prop serving other purposes and, thus, substantive federal gun-safety legislation happens. But as Professor Charles Collier wrote in Dissent Magazine: Unlimited gun violence is, for the foreseeable future, our (Americas) fate and our doom (and, in a sense, our punishment for (Second Amendment) rights-based hubris).

The Second Amendment, today, is a song of many distorted verses. A song of a uniquely American tragedy.

Fred Decker is a sociologist in Bowie, Md., with a background in health and social policy research. He wrote this for the Orlando Sentinel.

Originally posted here:
Second Amendment: An American tragedy | Local | azdailysun.com - Arizona Daily Sun

Your NRA-ILApreviously reported that Governor Greg Abbott signed two important pro-Second Amendment measurespassed by the Texas Legislature during the recent 140-day session into law:Senate Bill 16, priority legislation of Lt. Governor Dan Patrickthat slashes the cost of an original License To Carry from $140 to $40 and reduces the price of a renewal LTC from $70 to $40 to bring fees down to among the lowest in the nation; andHouse Bill 1819which revises Texas statutes to track federal law regarding ownership and possession of firearm sound suppressors. [The Texas Penal Code currently requires these devices to be registered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives. If the Hearing Protection Act that eliminates this federal requirement were to pass Congress before the Texas Legislature meets again in 2019, suppressor owners would have no way of complying with state law and could be guilty of a felony offense without this important change.] An amendment was added to HB 1819 in the Senate to clarify that non-NFA, short-barreled firearms with a pistol grip -- such as the Mossberg 590 Shockwave -- are not unlawful to sell or own in Texas. The Lone Star State is one of just two states where this particular gun cannot currently besold lawfully. Bothlaws take effect on September 1, 2017.

Governor Abbott has nowalso signed the following bills into law, which also have an effective date of September 1:

Senate Bill 263repeals the minimum caliber requirement (.32) for demonstrating handgun proficiency during the range instruction portion of the License To Carry course. This unnecessary provision negatively impacts LTC applicants with hand injuries or arthritis who would benefit from being able to use a smaller caliber handgun.

Senate Bill 1566contains provisions fromHB 1692 andSB 1942 to allow employees of school districts, open-enrollment charter schools and private elementary or secondary schools who possess valid LTCs to transport and store firearms out of sight in their locked cars and trucks. These employees had been left out of the 2011 law banning employer policies restricting the lawful possession of firearms in private motor vehicles.

Senate Bill 2065includes language fromHB 421 andHB 981 to allow volunteers providing security at places of worship to be exempt from the requirements of the Private Security Act. This could include License To Carry holders approved by congregation leaders, since the prohibition on possession of firearms by LTCs at places of worship is only enforceable if the location is posted or verbal notice is given.

House Bill 1935repeals the prohibition on the possession or carrying of knives such as daggers, dirks, stilettos and Bowies, by eliminating them from the prohibited weapons section of the Texas Penal Code. Restrictions remain in place for possession or carrying of knives with a blade over 5 inches long in public places and penalties are enhanced for carrying those in the same locations where the possession of firearms is prohibited, generally.

House Bill 3784allowspersons approved by the Texas Department of Public Safety to offer an online course to cover the classroom portion of the required training for a License To Carry. The measure alsoexempts active military personnel and veterans who have received firearm instruction as part of their service within the last 10 years to be exempt from the range instruction portion of the LTC course.

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Texas: Governor Abbott Signs Remaining Pro-Second Amendment Bills from 2017 Regular Session - NRA ILA

After a gunman opened fire on several Republican congressmen and their staffers at a baseball field in Virginia on Wednesday morning, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told reporters that the attack could have ended in a massacre had it not been for the Capitol Police.

Sen. Paul was sitting in the batting cage when he heard the gunshots; he had been practicing with the GOP congressional baseball team. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and four others who were also in attendance were injured, but Capitol Police officers quickly engaged with and apprehended the perpetrator, whom police later identified as 66-year-old James T. Hodgkinson from Illinois.

Everybody probably would have died except for the fact that the Capitol Hill police were there, Paul told MSNBC. Unfortunately, [Rep. Scalise] was hit and I hope he does well, but also by him being there it probably saved everyone elses lives because if you dont have a leadership person there, there would have been no security there.

Paul also released a statement echoing his praise and appreciation for the Capitol Police officers who stopped the shooter.

The incident quickly ignited a gun control debate online where the shooting was utilized by those who advocate for stricter gun laws, on one hand, as well as those believe looser gun laws could have prevented such an attack and helped stopped the one that occurred.

Meanwhile, in the House of Representatives, a debate on the availability of gun silencers scheduled Wednesday afternoon was delayed after the shooting.

As the heated debated centered on Second Amendment rights intensifies once again, one of Sen. Pauls own tweets resurfacedone that some suggest smacks of hypocrisy, given his press statements.

In June last year, a tweet from Pauls official account quoted Fox News contributor Judge Napolitano while livetweeting an event, writing: [We] have a Second Amendment to shoot at the government when it becomes tyrannical!

The senators office tells the Daily Dot thata staffer, not Paul,wrote the tweet.

Paul has presenteda pro-gun stance throughout his political career, with a voting record to show it. He has opposed legislation he believed impinged on the constitutional right to ownership, which maintains the right to bear arms as necessary to the security of a free State.

However, on Wednesday, critics claim, Paul found himself at the wrong end of the argument above when he was targeted himself.

Update 7:22am CT, June 15:Sen. Pauls communications director, Sergio Gor, told the Daily Dot in an email: Senator Paul never said those words. The tweet you reference was part of livetweeting of someone elses speech and it was done by a staffer.

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Sen. Rand Paul's year-old Second Amendment tweet resurfaces after shooting - The Daily Dot

BY: David Rutz June 15, 2017 12:21 pm

The liberal hosts of "The View" were well-armed with dubious talking points about gun control and the Second Amendment during a fierce debate Thursday in the wake of Wednesday's shooting that left House Majority Steve Scalise (R., La.) and four others wounded.

Host Sunny Hostin said "more guns is not the answer." Fellow host Joy Behar boasted of living in New York State with its strict gun laws, claiming that she would be afraid to live in an open-carry state and would never take public transportation.

"I'd be afraid that some guy on the subway would have a fit, just go mad because he was upset somebody took his seat and shoot somebody else," she said, not noting that the exact same thing could happen in New York.

Non-liberal hostJedediah Bila countered, however, saying she felt safe in states like Arizona and Texas.

"I'm not worried about law-abiding citizens carrying guns," Bila said. "They don't make me nervous."

Host Whoopi Goldberg cut over Bila to ask her if she had been around "afraid people with guns."

"I have," Bila said.

"I don't believe you, Jed. I don't believe you," Goldberg said.

"I'm a conservative! They're a very pro-gun, pro-Second Amendment [group]," Bila said, laughing.

Goldberg said that when assailants start shooting, people run, and the police may not know how to shoot if there were multiple people carrying guns. She did not point out that citizens bearing arms may be able to defend themselves against an attacker before the police arrived.

"The problem is, if the Capitol Police weren't there there would have been a massacre there," Bila said.

Told that's "their job," Bila was incredulous.

"If you live in a society where only the police have guns, that's called a police state," she said. "That is not the United States of America."

Goldberg then offered a dubious examination of the Second Amendment.

"The Second Amendment is about a militia," she said. "That's what it says."

It actually says more than that. Its full text reads, "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."

"It's the right to bear arms, to protect yourself and your family," Bila said.

Hostin said quietly that being able to defend one's self and family was "not what the Second Amendment is about."

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'The View' Explodes Over Second Amendment Debate, Goldberg ... - Washington Free Beacon

NewsBusters (blog)

WATCH: The View Lies About the Second Amendment, Wishes We ... NewsBusters (blog) The View, ABC's morning talk program that elevated Raven-Symone to political punditry, engaged in one of its more oafish rants Thursday on one of the many ... Second Amendment: An American tragedy | Local | azdailysun.comArizona Daily Sun all 5 news articles »

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WATCH: The View Lies About the Second Amendment, Wishes We ... - NewsBusters (blog)

BELCHERTOWN Joe Arpaio, former sheriff of Arizonas Maricopa County who has styled himself Americas Toughest Sheriff, will be a guest speaker this weekend at a Second Amendment rally in town.

Arpaio, who turns 85 this week, will speak at Belchertowns 4th Annual Flag Day Second Amendment Rally, which starts at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Swift River Sportsman Club.

Dave Kopacz, organizer of the rally, said Arpaio will probably speak around noon, though the official schedule for the event is still in the works.

Arpaio is a Massachusetts native, born in Springfield. He became nationally known in the last 15 years for his hardline stances on immigration, for battling findings of racial profiling in his sheriffs department, and for his campaign to prove that President Obamas birth certificate was forged, which he continued to wage as recently as last fall.

After 24 years in office, Arpaio lost his latest re-election bid in November. His trial in federal court on a criminal contempt charge in connection with racial profiling is pending.

The Belchertown rally will also feature several other speakers, including Jeanette Finicum, the widow of Robert LaVoy Finicum, one of the occupiers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon who was shot and killed during the armed standoff in January 2016.

Kopacz said he sees gun rights and property rights as connected. He believes the issues surrounding federal land use that came to a head in Oregon are similar to issues surrounding land trusts in Massachusetts.

We want to make sure we connect and parallel that with what is going on here, he said of the Oregon occupation.

Local Second Amendment activists will speak at the rally, too. Kopacz said both national and local speakers are important for the event.

I use the national guys to bring in the crowds, and the local guys to put them to work after, Kopacz said.

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Joe Arpaio, former Arizona sheriff, to speak at Second Amendment rally in Belchertown - Amherst Bulletin

Rep. Mo BrooksMo BrooksLawmakers recall the attack: 'I felt like I was back in Iraq' Capitol Hill shaken by baseball shooting The Hill's 12:30 Report MORE (R-Ala.), who was one of about two dozen GOP lawmakers present when a gunman opened fire on their baseball practice early Wednesday, vigorously defended the Second Amendment after a reporter asked him if it changed his view on the gun situation in America.

"Not with respect to the Second Amendment, Brooks responded. The Second Amendment, the right to bear arms is to help ensure that we always have a republic. And as with any constitutional provision in the Bill of Rights, there are adverse aspects to each of those rights that we enjoy as people, and what we just saw here is one of the bad side effects of someone not exercising those rights properly.

"We are not going to get rid of freedom of speech because some people say ugly things and hurt some peoples feelings, and were not going to get rid of the Fourth Amendment's search and seizure rights because some criminals could go free who should be behind bars, Brooks said at the scene of the shooting in Alexandria, Va.

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the House majority whip, is recovering from surgery after being shot in the hip, and four others were taken to hospitals after a gunman opened fire on Republican lawmakers practicing ahead of a charity congressional baseball game on Thursday.

At a press conference shortly after Brooks's comments, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) advocated for stricter gun laws in the wake of the shooting.

I think we need to do more to protect all of our citizens, McAuliffe said. I have long advocated this is not what today is about but there are too many guns on the streets. We lose 93 million Americans a day to gun violence. I have long talked about this. Background checks and shutting down gun show loopholes, and thats not for todays discussion, but its not just about politicians. We worry about this every day for all of our citizens.

McAuliffe later clarified that 93 Americans, not 93 million, die every day from gun violence.

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GOP rep defends Second Amendment in wake of shooting - The Hill

In the course of yet another dull, straw-clutching broadside against the right to keep and bear arms, the Atlantics David Frum repeats a commonly asserted myth:

That kind of supposedly defensive, actually aggressive, violence has become an even graver risk after today, in an American society that regards personal arsenals to be at least as much of a human right as the rights of free speech and peaceful assemblyand in actual practice, often amorefundamental right.

This is a popular talking point based upon a popular premise: That the Second Amendment is accorded a latitude that is no other. The trouble for Frum is that its nonsense. As it should be, the First Amendment is extremely broadly interpreted,to the point at which even sedition is legal unless it is accompanied by incitement to imminent violence. In recent years, the courts have prohibitedthe government from banning crushvideos in which kittens are killed with stilettos; they haveprotected the rights of bigots to protest military funerals; and they havegutted the countrys campaign-finance laws on the (correct) grounds that they cant be enforced without undermining core political expression. Before that, in Brandenburg v. Ohio, theyhad outlined speech protections that have no parallel in the history of the world.

Has the same thing happened for the Second, as Frum suggests? Not on your life. Indeed, Second Amendment advocates such as myself could only dream of such a trend. As is clear from his cringeworthy displayson Twitter, Frum does not have even a basic grasp of Americas gun laws, forif he did hed understand just how ridiculous is his claim. ASecond Amendment jurisprudence that echoed or exceeded the First would yield the voiding of almost every one of the thousands upon thousands of gun laws that obtain; itwould put an end to all licensing, requests for cause, andbackground checks; it would nix the prior restraint rules that areimposed in many states; it would open up the right to felons, to children, and to those in institutions; and, crucially, it would meanthat the courts had to usestrict scrutiny when evaluating claims, rather than the thumb-on-the-scales intermediate level that they tend to opt for in cases to do with guns. In practice, the First Amendment is as close to an unalienable right as has ever existed; one can do very little to lose ones shot at enjoying it. The Second, by contrast, is heavily locked down. One can argue that thats good or that, in practice, its inevitable and one can complain that America is far more liberal on the matter of arms than every other free country. But one cannot pretend that, culturally or legally, the Second Amendment is accorded special treatment.

Unless, that is, one doesnt care whats true and whats not.

Originally posted here:
No, the Second Amendment Is Not Given Special Treatment - National Review

Within the whirlwind of the news cycle the anti-Second Amendment refrain has already begun. CNN hosts and the editorial boards at many big newspapers are muttering the gun, the gun, as if the gun is responsible, as if the gun had an evil spirit that convinced this mannot a shooter as so many in the media will call him, but a killer, a would-be murdererto shoot members of Congress and their staff. As if an American freedom is causing some to do evil.

It is too early in this attempt at mass murder to know much about this murderer now confirmed dead, and identified as James T. Hodgkinson his mental state or why he chose to do evil. But it is not too early to see the heroism from Capitol Hill Police and others. It is not too early to see American goodness and even innocence for what it is.

At 7:15 a.m. Rep. Brad Wenstrup and Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, Sen. Rand Paul and Sen. Jeff Flake, and about two dozen others were at Simpson Field in Virginia just outside of Washington, D.C., to practice for the Congressional Baseball Game thats scheduled for June 15 at Nationals Park, a game that has been a tradition since 1909. They were getting ready to put politics aside and to come together again within an American pastime.

Early reports indicate that, from behind a dugout, shots began to shatter the early bright June morning. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise went down, shot in the hip, according to early reports. A congressional aide and two Capitol Police officers were also hit.

Many are already blaming the gun used or gun-rights in general, as if a long-held American freedom is to blame.

None of the congressmen or their staff members were armed. Sen. Rand Paul said that if Capitol Police werent there it would have been a massacre. This killer could have walked around unhindered if that were the case, as has happened too many times before in gun-free zones.

Police investigate a shooting scene after a gunman opened fire on Republican members of Congress during a baseball practice near Washington in Alexandria, Virginia, June 14, 2017. (REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)

The police were there because Rep. Scalise, being a member in congressional leadership, had a security detail.

The gunfight went on reportedly for a mad 10 minutes. The murderer had taken cover and the officers were likely, at least at first, only armed with their sidearms. Witnesses say Rep. Scalise dragged himself as far as he could away from the killer and toward people taking cover.

The police kept the killer pinned down and eventually took him out its not clear exactly how he was taken down.

Police man a shooting scene after a gunman opened fire on Republican members of Congress during a baseball practice near Washington in Alexandria, Virginia, June 14, 2017. (REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)

As soon as the police got the killer, Rep. Flake says he and Rep. Wenstrup, who is also a physician, ran onto the field to help Scalise, to apply pressure to his wound. Other physicians were soon on the scene as first-responders heroically rushed to the scene.

Now the analysis and the speculation has already turned political. Many are already blaming the gun used or gun-rights in general, as if a long-held American freedom is to blame.

Many in the media wont acknowledge that over 100 million Americans now legally own guns for sport or self-defense and that these people are largely safe and responsible.

They also arent likely to report that homicides are more likely to occur in areas with the strictest gun controls in place and they are unlikely to interview the women and others who have unfortunately had to rely on their right to bear arms to fend off attackers.

Police investigate a shooting scene after a gunman opened fire on Republican members of Congress during a baseball practice near Washington in Alexandria, Virginia, June 14, 2017. (REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)

Right now, about 15 million Americans have concealed-carry permits to carry handgunsthis number has been rising fast. Studies show that these people rarely commit violent crimes.

In the aftermath of evil visited upon us like this, it is also easy to forget how good and safe America really is. Any foreigner who has visited Capitol Hill must have been surprised with just how open the city isWashington, D.C., is still often thought of as a big, small town. Congressmen largely walk the sidewalks without security details. If someone wants to meet their representative it can often be arranged. A visitor must simply pass through one security checkpoint in the congressional buildings.

Maybe some of that needs to change, especially in view of recent terrorist attacks, but American freedom is not the problem, but rather it is what we are fighting for.

Frank Miniter is author of "The Future of the Gun" & "The Ultimate Mans Survival Guide". His latest book is,is "Kill Big Brother", a cyber-thriller that shows how to balance freedom with security without diminishing the U.S. Bill of Rights.

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Scalise shot: What the Virginia attack should teach us - the Second Amendment is not the problem, in fact it can ... - Fox News

Liberal writer Matthew Yglesias brought up Senator Rand Pauls support for the second amendment as a way to check tyrannical governments mere hours after the Kentucky Republican and others were shot at while practicing baseball.

A shooter opened fire on Republican lawmakers and staff Wednesday morning as they practiced for an annual charity baseball game. House Majority WhipSteve Scalise and others were shot.

In response to the news, Yglesias tweeted out a June 2016 comment from Paul where he said that the purpose of the Second Amendment was to shoot at the government when it becomes tyrannical. Ygelsias is a co-founder of the liberal news site Vox.

The tweet Ygelsiasreferenced was part ofPaul live tweeting of someone elses speech. One of the Senators staffers confirmed to The Daily Caller News Foundation that the tweet wasntPauls words.

The shooter hit Scalise, congressional staffer Zack Barth, two Capitol Police officers, and lobbyist Matt Mika. The Capitol Police officers, who were part of Scalises security detail, returned fire.

Yglesias did not return requests for comment to TheDCNF.

A self-proclaimed Black Activist tweeted out Pauls old comment as well, indicating Yglesias wasnt alone in his opinion.

Paul was in the outfield when the gunman started firing at GOP lawmakers, hitting Scalise and several others. Paul said the shooter turned the baseball field into a killing field.

I do believe without the Capitol Hill police, it would have been a massacre, Paul said in a television interview after the shooting. We had no defense, no defense at all. We are lucky Scalise was there. This was his security detail. Without them, it would have been a massacre. There was no stopping this guy. We were like sitting ducks. It was a wide open field, its a killing field.

The suspected shooter died from his wounds after being taken to the hospital. Scalise is in stable condition, and Capitol Police officers who were shot defending lawmakers are expected to survive, according to NBC.

Vox falselyclaimed that the U.S. had 11.6 times more mass shootings than actually occurred, according to an analysis previously by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Vox Notes GOP Supports 2nd Amendment To Overthrow Gov't | The ... - The Daily Caller