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Based on the contents of my Facebook news feed yesterday, only two things happened. The Pope issued his long anticipated encyclical on the environment, which was welcomed with praise by some and harsh criticism by others. And, in Charleston, South Carolina, a young white male took a gun into the historic Emmanuel AME Church and killed nine members of that faith community.
I have visited Charleston twice, and have found it to be a lovely, charming city. There are people that I call friends who make Charleston their home. So I feel a connection to the city and its people, and this senseless tragedy leaves me feeling deeply wounded. I am feeling especially upset because we seem to keep going through this, over and over and over again. The reluctance of our society to honestly confront the issues related to gun violence here make these killings all the more senseless.
Last night, Jon Stewart devoted his monologue to the shooting in Charleston:
I agree with him, and I'm glad that he has used his very public platform to take a stand. I also watched President Obama's statement about the shooting:
You can see the frustration in his body language, in his acknowledgement that this will likely change nothing in our nations gun politics. But I believe that he is correct when he says "But let's be clear. At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn't happen in other places with this kind of frequency."
Many of my friends will strongly disagree with me, but we, as a society, need to have a serious discussion about the role of guns in our nation. They do not want to acknowledge the reality that easy access to guns makes this kind of violence far too easy. They believe that the second amendment gives them unfettered rights to gun ownership. But, in spite of the Supreme Court's decision that seems to support that position, I think this is a fundamental misunderstanding of the original purpose and intent of the second amendment. The second amendment was written to address a specific situation at a specific time. It sought to enable the nation to have the means to defend itself at a time when there was effectively no standing army or strong military capacity. It was written at a time when the best weapons available to the average citizen could file a couple of rounds a minute in the hands of an expert. None of these are true today. We no longer need an armed citizenry to defend the nation, and weapons have become almost infinitely more lethal. The second amendment is out of date, and need to be revised to reflect the realities of our present day society. Unless we take drastic action, we will continue to see senseless violence like this repeat itself with disturbing regularity.
[I will be screening comments, not to filter opinions, but simply to make sure that they stay civilized and polite. If you want your comment to be seen, then you will need to refrain from using offensive language and name calling.]
I have visited Charleston twice, and have found it to be a lovely, charming city. There are people that I call friends who make Charleston their home. So I feel a connection to the city and its people, and this senseless tragedy leaves me feeling deeply wounded. I am feeling especially upset because we seem to keep going through this, over and over and over again. The reluctance of our society to honestly confront the issues related to gun violence here make these killings all the more senseless.
Last night, Jon Stewart devoted his monologue to the shooting in Charleston:
I agree with him, and I'm glad that he has used his very public platform to take a stand. I also watched President Obama's statement about the shooting:
You can see the frustration in his body language, in his acknowledgement that this will likely change nothing in our nations gun politics. But I believe that he is correct when he says "But let's be clear. At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn't happen in other places with this kind of frequency."
Many of my friends will strongly disagree with me, but we, as a society, need to have a serious discussion about the role of guns in our nation. They do not want to acknowledge the reality that easy access to guns makes this kind of violence far too easy. They believe that the second amendment gives them unfettered rights to gun ownership. But, in spite of the Supreme Court's decision that seems to support that position, I think this is a fundamental misunderstanding of the original purpose and intent of the second amendment. The second amendment was written to address a specific situation at a specific time. It sought to enable the nation to have the means to defend itself at a time when there was effectively no standing army or strong military capacity. It was written at a time when the best weapons available to the average citizen could file a couple of rounds a minute in the hands of an expert. None of these are true today. We no longer need an armed citizenry to defend the nation, and weapons have become almost infinitely more lethal. The second amendment is out of date, and need to be revised to reflect the realities of our present day society. Unless we take drastic action, we will continue to see senseless violence like this repeat itself with disturbing regularity.
[I will be screening comments, not to filter opinions, but simply to make sure that they stay civilized and polite. If you want your comment to be seen, then you will need to refrain from using offensive language and name calling.]
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