Undermining Security

Today's Star Tribune op-ed page had a roundup of excerpts from around the country about guns, white supremacy, and the shootings in El Paso and Dayton. I found this excerpt by Joel Mathis from The Week about the Second Amendment eminently reasonable:

It’s time that we help ourselves. And we can start by understanding and declaring that the Second Amendment is a failure.

It’s not just a failure because guns are used so widely, and to such ill effect. The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is a failure because the right to bear arms — the right it so famously defends — is supposed to protect Americans from violence. Instead, it endangers them. …

On balance, guns do more harm in America than good. The damages are easily measured, while the benefits are mostly theoretical and rare. … [emphasis added]

That's at the core, isn't it? 2A has as its stated purpose the "security of a free state," which... how is our current state of affairs making us, any of us, in any sense of "us," secure? A bit over a year ago, just after the March for Our Lives, I quoted technology theorist Langdon Winner's rewrite of 2A:

A well regulated Militia, being no longer necessary to round up runaway slaves or kill Indians, the right of the people to keep and bear arms and shoot their fellow citizens whenever, shall now be reasonably infringed.

That post also presented links with evidence showing guns don't decrease crime or increase safety.

It's beyond time for the Second Amendment to go.

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Some other past posts on the topic:

• The Road to Our Current NRA Hell (March 2018)
• Enough (February 2018)
• Some Amendments Are Extra-Special (June 2016)
• What Those Guns Are Actually Good for (December 2015)
• An Adolescent and Selfish Obsession (October 2015)
• Guns Do Not Make You Safer (September 2014), which includes thoughts on the subject from a former Marine/now weapons instructor
• After Newtown, a New Approach (December 2012)

And though it's sublinked in one of the above posts, I have to specifically recommend once again Pete Hautman's 2012 post on why he got rid of his handgun.