I am an advocate for gun control--which would require background checks, the prohibition of assault weapons for civilians, and the linking of gun-purchase data bases with no-fly lists and lists of suspected terrorists. But at the time of the Second Amendment I would have argued for a stronger amendment--one requiring everyone of military age to own a gun. This would have further insured the necessary preparedness. It would have made sense in view of the dangers that our fledgling nation faced, surrounded by potential adversaries with highly trained and well-supplied armies.
But such a provision makes no sense today, given that the United States military, despite recent claims to the contrary, is the best equipped and best trained in the history of the world. Nor do proposals of laissez-faire gun ownership of any and all kinds to almost anyone contribute to a rational or civil society.
What was vital to America in the eighteenth century may have little relevance to twenty-first-century America.
For the last thirty years one of my main occupations has been studying, teaching, and writing about longevity and issues of an aging society. What does that have to do with guns and the Second Amendment? The obvious answer is that dying young is an obstacle to longevity and aging.
Over the eight years of the American revolution 8,000 patriots of the Continental Army were killed in battle, cutting short for them what they fought for: "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." But their sacrifice gave us a nation.
During another eight years
from 2008-2015 more than 200,000 people in the United States have lost their
lives to gun violence. And what do we have to show for that loss other than
grief, pain, and the bewilderment of the rest of the world at our
gun laws?
Those killed in gun violence have been denied the right of life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness, stated in the Declaration of Independence. Their
deaths are a desecration of the principles that this nation was founded on and
for which the brave patriots gave their lives in the American Revolution.
It's time for a change and a new revolution with gun laws that honor America and its founders.
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