Tuesday Again and Yet Another Mass Shooting

This morning at about 9:00 I will go to Independence to get my hair done. Bob will go too. He is going to get a haircut while I am under the dryer. Afterward we will eat at Big Cheese. Then we will come back home. At least that's the plan.

This evening at 5:30 I have PINCH meeting. I will attend. I need to make up the agenda before that time. It's to be held at Saint James Methodist Church over on East 5th and Cedar.

In between I have no plans. I should do some cleaning. We will see.

There has been another mass shooting over at the Navy Yard in Washington DC. Thirteen were killed. When will the violence end? When a gun law is passed with some teeth in it...that's when. Antone who actually reads the 2nd Amendment will see that the authors were talking about arming a militia. The amendment needs to be read in the context of the culture of the time. There was no standing army and no police force. The citizens were a part of the militia who kept the peace and protected the citizens from Indians and marauders. We now have both a standing army and police forces in every community. When Australia passed a gun law, their violence was reduced by 75%. We obviously need a gun law regardless of what the NRA thinks. That's the only way the gun violence will stop.

More later...

Ironically, just today I heard an interview on NPR with Ruth Bader Ginsburg about this very subject and she said exactly the same thing I have said. In the day the amendment was written, it made perfect sense but that was two hundred years ago when there was no standing army and no police force. Every man was supposed to have a musket to be a part of the militia. You can google that interview on NPR if you are interested in her remarks.

In fact...here it is:

"There have been 19 mass shootings (defined as killing more than 5 people in each) in the USA since 2009. In Australia? Zero. Why? The Australian government passed strict gun control laws following the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.

In an interview on The Takeaway on NPR this morning Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave a history lesson on the 2nd Amendment. She explained that in the early days of the USA there was no organized army—there wasn’t any money to pay soldiers. The country’s defense relied upon the state militias who could be called up when needed to defend the country. These militias were made up of volunteers who were required to own certain specific weapons (like muskets) for this purpose. The “right to bear arms” was more like an obligation to bear arms so as to be ready to defend the country. This is the history behind the 2nd Amendment.

It’s time for a reality check and a move into the 21st century."