It's Past Time to Get Guns Under Control

Friday, December 21, 2012

It was in June 1954, during the Army-McCarthy hearings, that attorney Joseph Welch confronted Sen. Joseph McCarthy with the famous line that many believe was the final blow to McCarthy's bullying, delusional anti-communist campaign:

"Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

It may be that the gun control debate has reached a similar climactic point. How long can we tolerate increasingly frequent mass executions? At what point does a sense of decency, or perhaps rationality, overcome a residual national Wild West mentality? Will the NRA at last be relegated to the role of a latter-day Joe McCarthy?

It is time - it is, in fact, 30,000 deaths a year past time - to at least begin to get some control over our national fixation with firearms.

"Guns don't kill people, people kill people." We've all heard it. By that standard, nuclear weapons don't kill people either; still, I don't particularly want my neighbor to have one.

This is not a simple issue, but if the murder of 20 6- and 7-year-olds and teachers trying to protect them doesn't force a national debate, then we are very far down a road to civic chaos that the founders who wrote the troublesome Second Amendment could not have imagined.

The discussions surrounding that amendment are so tedious as to be meaningless by now. The amendment cites the need for a well-regulated militia to protect the security of a state as the basis for a right to bear arms.

The Supreme Court, in two decisions in 2008 and 2010, separated that right from any need for a militia, and allowed that reasonable restrictions on firearms were consistent with the Constitution.

It may be obvious, but that makes it no less relevant, that modern firearms were inconceivable in 1791 when the Second Amendment was adopted. At the time, a single-shot musket was the weapon of choice, whether for a militia, for shooting dinner, or, most likely, for both. If there was ever a case when the Constitution must be viewed through a modern lens, this is it.

Even the most left-leaning legislator in the country would not propose banning all firearms. Hunters can hunt, target shooters can shoot, a carefully managed pistol may be acceptable for self-defense; but assault weapons? They only appear to be suitable for mass murder.

Yes, yes, I know; there are millions of them out there now; criminals will get them no matter what we do; that horse is long out of the barn. It sounds a lot like nuclear proliferation.

So is the proper course just to ignore the whole thing until everybody is armed to the teeth; until Iran has nukes; or should we at least try to pull back from the brink and prevent crazy and evil people from having access to the means to kill?

It may well take decades to rationalize gun laws and achieve reasonable control over the sale and ownership of firearms. That is all the more reason to start now. We should all be very weary by now of school shootings and rampages in theaters and random killings in shopping malls. Those could be our children, our friends, ourselves.

Just as the Army-McCarthy hearings pulled the cover off Sen. McCarthy's ongoing witch hunt, the shootings in Newtown will hopefully prove a catalyst for a reasonable consideration of how and why we have come to this place, and how to move away from it.

I read just the other day that there is going to be a new television show on The Learning Channel, of all places. It is going to be called "The Best Funeral Ever." What would the founders think about that?

Fred Wolferman lives in Southern Pines. Contact him by e-mail at fwolferman@sbcglobal.net.

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ProudYankee 5 months ago

Fred, I don't always agree with you, but I don't know how anyone can not agree with what you have written here. It's long past time for this country to come to its senses.

dustyrhoades 5 months ago

If there's anything good that comes out of this horrible event, it's that even some conservatives are beginning to consider having an actual debate on gun control rather than defaulting to the usual yowling about SECOND AMENDMENT ARM EVERYBODY GOVERNMENT TYRANNY HITLER HITLER HITLER AAAAAAAGH!

Of course, as demonstrated in other threads here, some aren't.

OldPilot 5 months ago

The NRA has made it's position clear. An "...actual debate..." will do nothing more than let time pass, opinions will cool, more assault type weapons and high capacity magazines will flow into circulation, and nothing will change. This is the exact strategy the NRA has used every time we have a mass killing. PS: there was an armed security guard at Columbine, apolice officer, and a second officer arrived within seconds. 15 dead. So much for the NRA solution.

theoldguy 5 months ago

Wow....a well written, intelligent discourse on what REALLY needs to be done and damn soon Thank you Sir

The_AnonymusProfit 5 months ago

The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that's good"

-- George Washington

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government"

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1 Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it."

-- Abraham Lincoln, 4 April 1861

Men trained in arms from their infancy, and animated by the love of liberty, will afford neither a cheap or easy conquest.

-- From the Declaration of the Continental Congress, July 1775.

The point of having guns is to ensure our liberty. Now let me ask, how is it that if we ever were to attempt to overthrow our government, would we ever be able to unless we have access to weaponry that could allow us to beat our own army.

Im sorry but a 30 06 is no match for an M1 Abram

Gun control is one of the most heinous attempts by the government to absolve us of our liberties. The argument is irrational and illogical, has no basis in any fact, and preys on moments of emotional upheaval to achieve its final goal of an unwitting and unarmed citizenry.

Outrageous.

FightFireWithFire 5 months ago

How about we just get idiots under control? Stop pampering criminals and making guilty people feel like they can walk out of prison only to commit crime again. I spend enough time downtown in SoPines to realize that there is an element of people in that area that exist because certain people in out society "feel sorry " for them and coddle them to death. These individuals have been taught from an early age that someone will always give them something, either because they are unwilling to work for it, or they learn that they can use fear to take it by force.
Let's stop talking about guns and start talking about people. Let's have a meaningful dialogue on what some idealists in the USA have done to destroy the sense of responsibility in some parts of society. Let's discuss how our schools, parents and the justice system are failing us every day.
It's about people, it always has been. Welcome to freedom and the American way. Don't like it? There are flights from RDU that go to Saudi Arabia via Canada. Go over there and complain. I dare ya.

AFCHIEF 5 months ago

ENFORCE THE DAMN DEATH PENALTY. I bet if this Newtown shooter was not killed he'd get life in prison.

fugitiveguy 5 months ago

"Even the most left-leaning legislator in the country would not propose banning all firearms"

Now thats a good one.

fugitiveguy 5 months ago

"Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

Thats a question I wanted to pose to liberals when they hijacked voter ID and turned it into a false racial issue.

buddysmith 5 months ago

amazing how every time something like this happens, idiots vent their rage aginst the nra. the answers for our problems with psycho's committing mass murders will never come form the federal government. wonder how many murderers in the past would have walked into a school if they knew someone in the school was armed?

samosamo 5 months ago

88.8 GUNS per 100 people in the U.S.A. Go on ya'll control that!

scottish 5 months ago

no need to make idiots of NRA. The spokesman Wayne did that all by himself. A Joke of a gun owner! He should lose his certificate. He came over as totally deranged!

He was so bad, ill informed that I could have done a better job of his speech. I hate to think that he has guns..

fugitiveguy 5 months ago

"He came over as totally deranged!"

Wait a minute, he's a liberal?!

DannySteen 5 months ago

Expecting meaningful gun control debate from DC? Are you kidding? That pack of spoiled self centered brats in DC are of no use. The press is of even less help. It is the press is that spoiled the brats. Limits do need to be put on gun ownership. But not the total limitation some leftist call for or the free range that some far right would choose.

Yukonjohn 5 months ago

Thanks for those quotes TAP. They show everyone what our founders had in mind in regards to gun ownership. I honestly believe that they felt it was an obligation and responsibility for citizens to not only be armed, but trained in the use of them. The exact reason that they saw this as a need was to, at worst case senario, overthrow their own govt. As you said, a 30-06 is a poor match for weaponery used by our military.

skylinefirepest 5 months ago

OP you just keep coming up with stuff that I haven't heard about...a policeman on duty? And a second one within seconds?? The police did NOT make an entrance at Columbine for about half an hour, if I remember correctly. Columbine was responsible for changing the "active shooter" protocol for most of the departments in the country. Now, and not in the time period of Columbine, the police make an immediate entry.

The_AnonymusProfit 5 months ago

Your welcome Yukon, the fact is that crazy people have been doing crazy things for a very long time. The only difference is the weapons have changed. But the idea of regulating guns in any fashion is an illogical argument at best. Some times catch phrases do infact speak truth. People kill people, if they cant use guns they will use bombs.