GUNS FOR SALE

                                                                    By Ron Walsh

                                                                               ‘’She will take your guns away’’ was a statement issued by the Republican party during the run-up to the recent Presidential election in the United States. The ‘’she’’ was the Democratic party nominee Kamala Harris. Interesting. Harris’ reply was also interesting, ‘’I possess a gun myself’’. She obviously had no wish to lose votes (if she had any) from amongst the gun-lobby congregation.

                                                                                There are many good things which can be said about the US, but its gun-laws are not one of them. In fact gun-laws relative to that country are simply regarded as a sick joke by most of the civilised world, as there are far more guns available now, and in public view, than there had been back in the days of the notorious Wild West.

                                                                                When a rare photograph of the outlaw Billy the Kid was discovered in 2010, which showed the outlaw in the company of ten of his gang members, many people were surprised that nobody was in possession of a gun. In fact the desperadoes were enjoying a quiet game of croquet! How very un-outlaw like. The truth is, while there had been many killings back in the old Wild West, not everyone walked around sporting a Colt 45, or any type of weapon. However, many people did possess a rifle.

                                                                                 The greatest myth associated with that era, and which has been propagated in numerous movies over the years, was the supposed quick-draw encounter. Who in their right mind would support the idea of putting his life at risk by giving his opponent an even break, so as to find out who had the fastest draw? Almost all killings were bushwhackings, shooting from an ambush position, often in the back. The lawman ‘’Wild Bill’’ Hickok and the outlaw Jesse James were two of the many people who died from a bullet in the back.

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                                                                                 In Europe generally, including Ireland, if someone calls to a police-station and tells whoever is in charge that he (or she) would like permission to buy a gun, invariably he (or she) would be answered with the question ‘’Why would you want a gun?’’. In the United States the answer would be ‘’How many?’’.

                                                                                 Gun violence in the US results in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries annually, with 1.4 million dying between 1968 and 2011, including suicides. In 2021 alone 48,830 people died from gun-related injuries. According to further research gun deaths amongst children increased by 50% between 2019 and 2021. Mass shootings occur on a far larger scale, and much more frequently, than in other developed countries, while school shootings are described as a ‘’uniquely American crisis’’. Children at US schools receive ‘’active shooter’’ drills.

                                                                                  The states with the highest total number of gun-related deaths include Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico, Alabama and Wyoming, while those with the lowest figures include Massachusetts, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island. The US gun death rate worked out at 10.6 per 100,000 people in 2016, far higher than Spain, Germany, the UK, France, Australia and Canada, but much lower than El Salvador, Venezuela, Guatemala, Colombia and Honduras. With the latter hardly something to write home about.

                                                                                  Sometime in 2023, following yet another mass shooting, the ubiquitous Republican Governor of Texas, Greg Abbot, came out with the following statement‘’The guns are not the problem’’. He followed that particular gem by stating that almost all of the shooters who survived were found to be suffering with a mental illness, something that became a mantra for many GOP leaders. The facts prove otherwise. Over 25 years, out of 137 shooters who survived their shooting-spree, only five were found to be suffering with a mental illness. Fake news.

                                                                                  In a country where guns are almost freely available at the proverbial drop of a hat, or at least access to one is, the problem is most definitely the guns. Such availability often feeds into a persons reaction when faced with a crisis in his life, whether work-related, school-related, or whatever-related, often ending up with mass-murder. Yet there are many brain-dead politicians or leaders who claim that more guns out there will help to solve the problem. Dangerous fake news.

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The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads ‘’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’’. It was based partially on the right to keep and bear arms in English common law.

                                                                                   During the Revolutionary War, following the US declaring its independence from Great Britain in 1776, the ‘’militia’’ referred to groups of men who banded together to protect their communities, towns, colonies, and eventually states. They proved insufficient against the British, so the Constitutional Convention gave the new federal government the power to establish a standing army, which was later allowed to remain in situ during peacetime. It was then argued that the federal army deprived states of their ability to defend themselves against oppression, which eventually resulted in the state militia being replaced by a reserve military force, the National Guard.

                                                                                    To most neutral readers of the Second Amendment it would appear that the National Guard was intended as a successor to the militia, simply there to protect each individual state’s rights. However, in 2008 the Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision which held that the Amendment protects an individual’s right to keep a gun for self defence. It was the first time that the Court had ruled that the Amendment guaranteed an individual’s right to own a gun, although it did rule that there should be restrictions on gun sales, bans on the concealed carrying of weapons, and also bans on weapons ‘’not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes’’. At the time that the Second Amendment was ratified, in December of 1791, James Madison (later to become 4th President of the US) contrasted his country’s government to the European kingdoms, who were ‘’afraid to trust the people with arms’’.

                                                                                    The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) claim that it is the right of every citizen to take up arms against their government should they consider it illegitimate! When and how does one decide if their government is illegitimate? The NRA and other powerful groups continued to demand their gun-rights under the Second Amendment, at the same time as mass shootings became an increasingly frequent occurrence in American daily life. Despite Columbine High School (1999), where two students killed 12 classmates; Virginia Tech (2007), where a 23-year-old student killed 32 students and teachers; Sandy Hook Elementary School (2012), where a 20-year-old killed his mother before killing 20 children and 6 adults; Orlando nightclub (2016), where 49 people were killed and 53 wounded; Las Vegas country musical festival (2017), where 60 people died and 411 wounded; Santa Fe High School (2018), where 10 people died and 14 wounded; Parkland High School (2018), where a former student killed 17 and wounded 17; Buffalo supermarket (2022), where 10 black people were killed; Robb Elementary School (2022), where 19 children and 2 adults died. In this century alone there have been over 250 mass-shootings in the country. Excluding the thousands of single killings.

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                                                                                    During the Irish Civil War the prime-minister of the Free State, W. T. Cosgrave, made some interesting and pertinent comments on the topic of guns, and their availability. Following the first five executions of members of the anti-Treaty IRA, who had been caught in the possession of weapons, Cosgrave had this to say ‘’What do we want? We want simple order restored to this country. We want all arms under the control of the people who elected us, and who can throw us out tomorrow if they so desire. We want that the people of this country only shall have the right to say who are to be armed, and who are not. And we are going to get the arms if we have to search every house in the country. People who rob with arms are going to be brought before military courts and found guilty. Persons robbing at the point of the gun will be executed without discrimination. This is going to be a fair law, fairly administered in the best interests of the country for the preservation of the fabric of society. We are going to see that the rule of democracy will be maintained’’.

                                                                                     Some weeks prior to the ending of the war he commented that ‘’the people are entitled to have all lethal weapons within the country in the effective custody or control of the Executive Government responsible to the people through their representatives’’. Cosgrave obviously saw that taking the guns out of the hands of those who had decided to ignore the Dail’s decision to accept the Treaty, and the voters similar decision in the general election, was essential in restoring peace. (The 1920 local elections had previously shown that the electorate overall was not committed to an Irish Republic.) Unfortunately, the anti-Treaty weapons at wars end were neither handed over nor collected, which would cause problems down the road for a number of years. But the Cosgrave led government was certainly seeking to take the guns out of the hands of those who should have no right to possess them in the first place.

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                                                                                     And finally, we return once again to the subject of the Second Amendment. Numerous scholars have been quoted over the years on its interpretation, with one declaring that ‘’The right of self defence is the first law of nature’’. Joseph Story once described a militia as the ‘’natural defence of a free country against foreign foes, domestic revolts, and usurpation by rulers’’. But he also saw the problems of allowing every citizen access to firearms ‘’How is it practicable to keep the people duly armed without organisation. It is difficult to see’’.

Yet another scholar, William Rawle, commenting on the same problem, declared ‘’This right to bear arms ought not be abused to the disturbance of the public peace’’. If every person held a gun, and there was no training or control over him or her, the end result could well be disastrous. And if those very same people came to the conclusion that the federal government was illegitimate, or was in some way conspiring against them, what might happen? What might happen was what actually did happen in D.C. on January 6th 2021, when the Capitol Building was over-run by an out-of-control mob which had simply lost the plot, believing the fraudulent conspiracy theory that the Democrats had won the Presidential election because they had ‘’stolen the vote’’. Is that something the Founding Fathers had wanted? 

There are three basic interpretations of the Second Amendment. The first holds that it does not apply to individuals, but recognises the right of each state to arm its militia. Under this approach, citizens have no right to keep or bear arms, but each state had a right to the National Guard.

The second interpretation argues that the Amendment recognises some limited individual right. But this individual right would be actively participating members of a functioning, organised, state militia.

The third interpretation, known as the ‘’standard model’’, gives the personal right of individuals to keep and bear arms.

The third one ensures a ‘’free for all’’ where, as is allowed in a number of states, armed individuals are free to meander the streets of their cities, towns, and villages, while sporting the latest assault-weapon, as though it were no more dangerous than a smart-phone. While this is common practice in many South American and African countries, where dangerous looking gun-tooting individuals are a common sight, it should certainly not be acceptable in a country which purports to be ‘’The leader of the Free World’’. This has nothing to do whatsoever with the right to self defence. This is banditry.

The United States own War of Independence is long over, as is the Civil War, as is its treatment of Native Americans. The Wild West is also long gone. Or should be. January 6th was an attempted insurrection, and should never be allowed to happen again. Many of those who took part in it have been punished. So also should the people who provoked it.

If January 6th 2021 was a disaster, and it was, so also was what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia, back in 2017, where the ugly face of white supremacists, neo-Nazi’s, and white nationalists, were there for all to see on their television screens. The latter group was demonstrating against the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, but many people there on that day were chanting ‘’Blood and soil’’, the English translation of a Nazi slogan, while many were also spewing out their hatred of blacks and Jews. One woman was run over by a car and died, while many more were injured. The then US President later stated that there ‘’were some very fine people on both sides’’.

In March of 2021, soon after a mass shooting in Boulder, California, which left ten people dead, Texas Senator Ted Cruz commented that the Democrats were playing ‘’theatre’’’’ with their proposed gun-control changes, but offered ‘’thoughts and prayers for the victims’’. A great help! And then there is the Texas Governor Greg ‘’The guns are not the problem’’ Abbott. What happened to The Great State of Texas that it ended up in such a state?

Does the NRA pay prominent people to speak out in support of the gun-lobby? Or is it simply a case that it supports and promotes gun-nuts? There is no indication that anything is going to change. No indication that an intelligent interpretation of the Second Amendment is about to be agreed upon. The weapons industry is alive and doing very well, thank you. Compared to Europe the United States is unique as far as the availability of guns are concerned. We all enjoyed the Hollywood movies of the Wild West back in the day. But then we grew up!

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                                                         Ron Walsh. Copyright 2024.