It implies a fraternal association between a President and the people—an ordered society based on fraternity, equality and…a pipe-dream. The mass killings tragically blighting America these days have put paid to any sense of fraternity—even friendliness—replacing it with paranoia that the fellow American next to you, could be the American who kills you.
Yet, despite the number of killings—most of them with guns, and in numbers unprecedented since the American Civil War, gun proponents, most notably the National Rifle Association (NRA), still insist they have the inalienable, unassailable right to keep and bear arms, as enshrined in the American Constitution.
But is it enshrined? And, if it is, need it remain so? The NRA will answer Yes and Yes. Proponents of stronger gun laws will answer Yes (and No) and No.
This is why the proponents are right and the NRA and Donald Trump are wrong.
The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution (ratified in 1791) does, by interpretation, say Americans have the right to keep and bear arms. But, does it actually say that?
No.
It says:
“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.”
Where in that does it say all Americans have the right? These days “Well regulated Militia” would suggest only those under Federal or State control such as the police, defence forces and perhaps the National Guard—not Mark Chapman, not the killers of Columbine, of San Bernardino and not even the NRA have the Right to bear and keep arms.
Furthermore the introduction of that amendment, drafted by Thomas Madison, seems to be based on the English Bill of Rights (1689). Sir William Blackstone described this (English) right as an auxiliary right, supporting the natural rights of self-defense, resistance to oppression, and the civic duty to act in concert in defence of the state.
None off which even remotely rationalises the motives for these mass shootings. The Second Amendment was also introduced at a time when the United States state was under external threat from Great Britain, and its civilians in remote areas vulnerable to Indian attack. Neither of which today exist.
So, yes, the right does appear in the American Constitution. But, no, implicitly it does not apply to all Americans and in any case was predicated at a time and circumstance that no longer exist and on a precedent that is no longer relevant.
So, if there is ambiguity, would it not be safer to get rid of it altogether or at least replace it with something that defines “the Right” more clearly? No, says the NFA, it is enshrined in the Constitution. Yes, it is, we know that (yawn), but the Constitution can be changed.
Can it?
Yes.
In one of his erudite essays, American writer Gore Vidal regarded the US Constitution not as “the stone tablets of Moses” but as “a living document in need of regular visitation and revision.”
“I have seen how much trouble it (The Constitution) causes,” he says.
In that, Mr Vidal echoes the thoughts of one of the authors of the original constitution, Thomas Jefferson, who wrote that each generation should take a hard look at the document and make changes.
Since the US Constitution was ratified in 1789 it has been amended 27 times and it won’t have escaped your notice that the right to keep and bear arms was the second of those amendments. So, if it took an amendment bring it in, logically the same opportunity/process can be employed to take it out. All it takes is a two-thirds majority in both the House of Representatives and the US Senate, or a constitutional convention by two-thirds of the state legislatures.
But that is not going to happen. The American gun lobby is too strong to allow it to happen.
Americans will be left to their own devices—usually an AK47, or similar—to kill each other at will. It is a malaise that has always blighted the self-perceived “greatest country in the world” and one the United States, as great and powerful as it is, seems unable or unwilling to shake off. In fact, if the farcical thoughts of Republican candidate Donald Trump are anything to go by, they may even elect to promulgate it.
America the beautiful.
America the dammed.
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