Guns, and more guns. Every day, in just about every newspaper in America we can read about a shooting nearby. There is no part of the Country that is immune from gun violence. In 2020 there were over 19,000 homicides and over 24,000 suicides by guns. I have heard many times “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people”. Well, I would like to add that all cases it is people with guns that kill people and to say otherwise is just ignoring the facts. A gun does not pull its own trigger; a person has to pull that trigger.

As of 2020, the top ten gun ownership states, per capita, five were also in the top ten gun deaths per capita. I don’t know about you but I think that might say that more guns lead to more gun deaths. Funny but you hear about Chicago and Detroit being so violent but neither Illinois nor Michigan are in the top ten in either category. Don’t get me wrong, I think all our inner cities are violent places but maybe because they are in major news centers we hear about the gun violence more. But don’t kid yourself, gun violence is everywhere.  The United States has by far the most gun deaths of any high income nation. Our mental health issues in America are no worse than the rest of the world but it is our access to guns that make our mental health issues more serious here. The biggest difference is the ease of obtaining a gun in America. I think we have just about as many guns in this country as we do people.

I always hear it is our Constitutional right to bear arms given to us by our 2^nd Amendment.  “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”  That one sentence has always been a very controversial sentence. All you ever hear people say, “In the Constitution, I have the right to bear arms” yet, that the one sentence says a lot more. The words “well-regulated” are in there. What does that mean? People running around with their AR-15’s, strapped on to go to the grocery store does not look like anything that is part of a well-regulated anything. It says, “Being necessary for a Free State”. What does that mean? Without that 45 strapped to my side our State cannot be a free state? I am a gun owner and I have always thought that I had the right to protect my home and family. I never felt that it was the 2^nd Amendment that gave me that right. Guns today are not meant to free us. We are already free. That is what our Constitution is does. Today guns are more likely used to oppress and intimidate you who actually take freedoms away from you. Being so safe that you don’t have to worry about guns is what real freedom should be.

There have been always a racial side of the Second Amendment. Why was the Second Amendment put there in the first place when the Constitution established a Federal Army even during peacetime? During the Revolutionary War Militias proved not to be very effective. Why were the States so certain that they needed a well regulated Militia? How about 1:  Attacks from Native Americans and 2: Slave uprisings. James Madison, Patrick Henry and George Mason were very responsible for the 2^nd Amendment and I think they were all slave owners. Richard Lee from Virginia one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence did not trust that the Federal Government would react properly in case of a slave revolt. Because of a slave uprising known as the Haitian Revolution in 1791 many feared that the same would happen here. Many felt that a militia, controlled by the State, was very important for the maintaining of slavery in the South. In much of the South during slavery they had a type of local militia called slave patrols which were meant to enforce the laws of slavery. These early, local Militia, some feel, are the precursors to our current Police Force and Sheriff Departments. That was the original purpose for the 2^nd Amendment as I see it.

Today we still see Black people as threats. In Missouri we had peaceful Black protestors marching in a White neighborhood and a White man and his wife were standing in their yard with their pistol and assault rifle to protect themselves from the Black “horde” invading their neighborhood. In Kenosha Wisconsin a former County Supervisor called for a militia to come and help protect the city from the Black Lives Matters protestors. Yes, racism and guns go hand in hand and has been since the first slaves were brought to the Americas. Hollywood has played their part in our the perception of needing to be protected from the Black Criminal that are destroying our inner cities because of their drugs and their violence. Hollywood has given the impression that guns give a person power. I heard a line from a movie where the character said that “God may have made man but it was Sam Colt the made them equal”.

In the ruling by the Supreme Court in 1874, the case United States  vs. Cruikshank,  the Supreme Court ruled that “The right to bear arms is not granted by the Constitution; neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument of its existence. The Second Amendment means no more than it shall not be infringed by Congress, and has no other effect than to restrict the powers of the National Government.” You would think that this was a victory for gun control on the State level but at the time it opened the door for open season on the Blacks in our Southern States. We also had a few years later in 1886 Presser vs. the State of Illinois. Illinois had passed a law against locally formed militias not sanctioned by the State. That law was upheld by the Supreme Court so now a militia had to follow the laws of the State. The non-sanctioned militias were illegal. The Supreme Court in the District of Columbia vs. Heller in 2008 stated that personal protection is part of the 2^nd Amendment. It opened the door for all this open carry and gun intimidation that we have today. In 230 years that was never the purpose of the 2^nd Amendment but it is now. So in my opinion it threw out 230 yrs of rulings for political gain. The issue of Clarence Thomas receiving gifts as a Supreme Court Justice has brought to the forefront that there could be corruption of our courts. Look how much money the NRA pays every year for political influence. I wonder how many children would be alive today if the courts had ruled as courts in the past did.

The Second Amendment is in my opinion, the most twisted sentence in the entire Constitution. It was put there as a tool for the oppressor to help enslave and control Black people. The word self-protection is nowhere in the Amendment because the Amendment was not written for self-protection as we know it today it was written to be a tool of oppression. The playing of politics has distorted it for political power and money. It was written for White slave owners to protect their investment in human flesh. It has been turned now into something very dangerous for our whole nation. I will never vote for a Political Party that just send thoughts and prayers. The useless death of our children and neighbors is not the price of freedom that we all must pay. It is how our freedom will end.

I am a gun owner. I have a conceal and carry license but I never carry it in public. One bad decision can turn a good guy with a gun into a bad guy with a gun. I know that I have the right to protect my home and I will but our streets are safer with the guns off them.