COMMENTARY: The duality of gun rights
People visit a memorial on Berkshire Road in Newton Connecticut, 12 days after a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. (Courtesy Bbjeter, CreativeCommons/Wikimedia)
I am comfortable around guns, although many Americans are not. I have been exposed to firearms in safe environments and I have used firearms in safe environments as well. My experience with firearms is not prolific and I don’t own any weapons, but the familiarity that I have is uncommon for the majority of Americans. Experience with firearms for many Americans is associated with pain and suffering due to the loss of a loved one from gun violence. Fortunately, I have never lost somebody close to me to a firearm, but every day these weapons rip families apart.
According to a 2016 Pew Research 44 percent of households have a gun. This number is surprisingly low when you consider that the National Rifle Association spent $2.5 million lobbying in 2016, and spent $52 million in independent expenditures (political campaign communications), according to OpenSecrets.org. Support from the public is not as strong as the NRA funding might suggest.
Two Americans from gun owning families, Kaitlin Breck and Marco Chilelli, have differing views on America’s identity crisis. Chilelli, 21, is a student at Loyola University and recently acquired a license to purchase a gun.
“I got the license to protect myself should that time ever come,” he said. “... America might be safer if everyone had a concealed carry.”
Breck, 21-year-old Connecticut resident, believes that fewer guns would actually be safer.
“Everyone should have the right [to own a gun] ... but the United States needs to pass more progressive laws," she said.
Break added that while the Second Amendment protects gun owners rights, more guns are not the answer.
The debate over gun control policy hit home four years ago on Dec, 14th, 2012 when a shooter entered Sandy Hook elementary school and killed 20 students and six teachers. I was shocked that this could happen in my home state of Connecticut, only 30 minutes from where I grew up. The shooter stole his mother’s military-style, AR-15 semi-automatic weapon killed her and then went to the school on a killing spree. The Second Amendment was not written so that Americans could massacre our youth.
HISTORY OF REGULATION
Connecticut has a long history of gun regulation, dating back to colonial times.
Connecticut 1643: The state and other colonies required “at least one adult man in every house to carry a gun to church or other public meetings” for protection and to prevent theft. Today, Connecticut ranks #4 in a comparative study of state gun laws conducted by the Open Society Institute.
United States 1791: The Second Amendment was ratified in 1791 - 225 years ago. At the time, American citizens were wary of their new government and made this amendment to ensure that they could protect themselves if necessary.The ratified amendment reads: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a freestate, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
This statement is the foundation of the pro-gun lobby, it provides rights and prohibits any regulation. Chilelli was adamant that the amendment was meant solely for individual rights, he said “It is stating the right for all [to own guns].” For the pro-control lobby, the amendment provides the foundation for a militia service, not individual ownership. Most lobbyists, from both sides, would agree that gun control and the right to bear arms cannot exist simultaneously.
The founders of America expected that able-bodied men own guns and serve in their state militia. In 1792, federal law was passed requiring that able-bodied men buy a military-grade rifle and ammunition, according to ProCon.org. While the government was pro-gun for some, they also restricted sales to Native Americans, indentured servants, and slaves, according to ProCon.org. Gun control was acceptable when it was only applied to minorities, not the white ruling class, evident in Georgia before the Civil War.
Georgia 1833: State law prohibited the sale, use, or carry of firearms by free people of color. The law also stated that any person of color found guilty would receive 39 lashes on their back. Today, Georgia ranks #41 in the nation in the Open Society Institute study and the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence gave Georgia an F on its grading scale.
Gun regulation and legislation was prolific for hundreds of years, but that was before the NRA lobbied as it does today. Following multiple gun control laws in the early 1900’s, the NRA transitioned from a sporting organization to a pro-gun rights lobbying organization. Chicago is notorious today for high gun violence rates but as early as the 1930’s legislation was passed to limit firearm violence.
Chicago 1929: The St. Valentine's Massacre occurred in Chicago. Following this violence from mobsters, gun legislation was introduced and in 1934 the National Firearms Act was introduced. This legislation was one of the first national restrictions. Today, Illinois ranks #6 in the Open Society Institute’s comparative study of state gun laws.
Since 1977: The NRA has dedicated themselves to focus solely on protection of the Second Amendment. Their zeal and enthusiasm is unmatched among any other American organization, and with this influence they have been able to shape U.S. gun policy for their benefit in the past four decades.
It seems that in the coming years American policy will be shaped by Republican lawmakers in the pockets of the NRA lobby. In that time a few things will stay constant, the debate between rights and regulations, the production of deadly firearms, and the loss of innocent boys, girls, men and women.
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