In the whole debate about gun laws that has been going on for so long, no one has pointed out the simple fact that our primary rights are the first ones written into our founding documents and therefore were clearly the most important rights to the founders. However, those rights are consistently violated by the out-of-control gun violence that is fostered and perpetuated by loose gun laws.
The first words of the Declaration of Independence are: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The first words of the US Constitution are: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
It ought to be clear, then, that the founders placed the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness above all else, and that those primary rights were to be ensured by laws promoting domestic tranquility, common defense, and the general welfare. Unfortunately, current firearm laws in many states and on the federal level fly in the face of those rights, and they contribute to the obscene prevalence of firearm deaths in this country (greater than in any other country in the world except those in a state of war). Slavish adherence to a tortured interpretation of the Second Amendment is the reason this condition exists.
The first words of the Second Amendment (“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State…”) clearly indicate that the Amendment was intended to bolster the federal government’s obligation to “…provide for the common defence…” and nothing more. No reasonable case can be made that it was intended to promote unregulated ownership of any weapon that could be conceived or invented, as is currently the case.
The Second Amendment was written after the Constitution proper, making it secondary to the primary rights noted above, and its current interpretation is in opposition to those rights. One cannot count on life, the pursuit of happiness, domestic tranquility or general welfare when one is in constant fear of being shot at places that should be — and historically have been until recently — safe, such as schools, movie theaters, supermarkets, places of worship, and dance halls.
It is therefore incumbent on political leaders to recognize the primacy of justice, domestic tranquility, general welfare, and blessings of liberty by passing laws that honor those rights and reduce to the greatest extent possible the harm to those rights caused by firearms. It is also incumbent on them to NOT pass laws that fly in the face of those rights and increase the potential for harm caused by firearms.
