Once again, our nation is reeling from yet another horrific mass killing; or, as it happens, two in 24 hours. No doubt, we will go through the -- now standard -- ritual of our leaders offering "thoughts and prayers" to the families of the victims; Democrats wringing their hands and calling for action; Republicans mumbling and try to be invisible; media talking endlessly about "reasonable" gun control laws. And nothing at all changes.
So instead, here's an idea: let's just repeal the 2nd Amendment to the constitution. Not that the amendment itself is bad: it had a purpose and a time. But any rational reading of that amendment would conclude that it was never intended to support the ludicrous situation in which we find ourselves. It is, to quote the late Justice John Paul Stevens, a “relic of the 18th century”. We no longer have a "well-regulated militia," nor is such an entity "necessary to the security of a free State." We have a standing army to protect our state; and, in the event that our own government becomes the oppressor (an idea that was, frankly, unthinkable before our current administration), the idea that our small arms would help us against an trained army with planes, rockets, and nuclear warheads is laughable.
However, that legal ship has sailed. For whatever its reasons, the court has ruled on a different meaning to the 2nd Amendment, and there is nothing that can be done about that now. Even the conservative Chief Justice Warren Burger told PBS that the NRA's advocacy of an individual’s right to bear arms "has been the subject of one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word fraud, on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime (https://www.npr.org/2018/03/05/590920670/from-fraud-to-individual-right-where-does-the-supreme-court-stand-on-guns?t=1565197923547)."
So where do we go from here? Any legislation that will now pass constitutional muster amounts to nothing but shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic. We need to acknowledge that the 2nd Amendment has outlived its usefulness and repeal it. Yes, I know that America has a deeply rooted gun culture. Yes, I know that there is a group of citizens who will never peacefully surrender their weapons. Yes, I know that there are a vast number of people who use guns recreationally and responsibly. But sadly, the societal price for that particular recreation is just too high.
As I write these words, I am in London, where no one really worries about being shot by a random crazy person. Many of the police here don't even carry guns. And -- surprise, surprise -- crime is not rampant; law-abiding citizens are not at the mercy of gun-toting hoodlums; civilization goes on just the same. The Brits, of course, are no less crazy than we Americans (as witnessed by their own recent political decompensation); but when they get upset, they don't have the option of shooting each other. That feels like a significant step forward in making a country livable.
So, while I appreciate all of the work in which countless gun control organizations around the US engage to create and enact "reasonable" gun control laws, I would like to make a pitch for an "unreasonable" approach: let's just get rid of them. All of them.
This will obviously not happen overnight. It will hardly happen in a generation. But if right now we simply outlawed all firearms, except for use by governmental agencies, we would stop the arms race between law-enforcement and criminals in its tracks, and we could slowly begin the process of disarming our nation. And everyone would be safer.