It Is Time

This is most definitely NOT what our forefathers meant. Say what you want about them—all male, slave owners, etc.—they were brilliant when it came to drafting our Constitution. They recognized that it would have to be a document that would last and could adapt to changing times. A document that could stand to be interpreted by many voices, many views, through many lenses, by different people.

The right to bear arms, for them, meant the ability of citizens to arm themselves against the government if it tried to abuse the rights of citizens. It meant the right to defend against an assailant. It meant the right to protect your family. Constitutional scholars can argue with me all they want, but I guarantee you it does NOT mean the right to take a gun and shoot anyone you feel like and it was never meant to allow someone to gun down children like ducks in a shooting gallery carnival game.

The guns in the 1700s were ridiculously ineffective when compared to those of today. Most of them couldn’t hit a target. There is no way our forefathers could have imagined a gun that shoots 100 bullets in a few seconds. If they did, I’m confident they wouldn’t have EVER included the amendment in our Constitution, certainly not without a LOT more clarity.

Anyone who tries to make the argument that gun ownership is a fundamental right needs to remember these words from the Declaration of Independence: “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”—the unalienable rights endowed by our Creator and for whose protection we enable our government. A well-regulated militia may be necessary to ensure the security of a free state, but children who live to grow up are necessary to ensure humanity continues.

Gun ownership does not trump life. It does not trump the rights of a six year old to go out and play, to build a Lego fort, to kiss her mommy good night, to grow up.

I don’t want to hear your arguments about how guns don’t kill people, people kill people. To quote my husband, we can’t get rid of people.

Something has to change. Our country has a gun problem and the answer is not more guns.

I’m sure there are people who can express their pro-gun feelings in reasonable and logical ways. I’m sure they can cite examples and statistics that support their argument. Anyone who wants to argue the benefits of owning guns needs to picture this: someday in the future, the rest of the world will move past the immediate horror of the tragedy in Newtown. The rest of the world will return to our ordinary lives. The rest of the world will be able to look at our children without our eyes filling with tears. But in Newtown, a mother or a father is going to stumble across a forgotten shoe, a hairband left under a bed, a beloved stuffed animal tossed to the side. And every time that happens, the grief will be fresh, the horror renewed.

And no argument about gun rights will change that.