Second Amendment Comes First

Americans revere their homeland as the center of the world; the #1 economy, champion of human rights, gun-toting conservatives,  and the list goes on. For centuries Americans have alluded to their traditions as "inalienable rights" but every so often a major tragedy occurs which will alter the opinion of the public.  Today we are at a turning point and perhaps the beginning of a period of punctuated equilibrium; gun violence and domestic terrorism are slowly creeping up on us. As a result, our "inalienable rights" to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have taken the back seat to the "right to bear arms".  Tragically, gun violence has become as normal as a black man getting pulled over for ambiguous reasons. We have become desensitized to unethical practices all throughout America and we cannot expect change unless we actively stand up against the status quo.

The second amendment 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."  For centuries this has been interpreted as the right to bear arms for men and was later expanded to signify any and all citizens of the United States. The ambiguity of the statement, however, leaves ample room for different interpretations.  A 2008 Supreme Court decision in District of Colombia v. Heller, reaffirmed the second amendment as the individual's right to own guns for lawful usages, such as self-defense. So how do mass shootings fit into this equation? That is the element of division in a pro-life majority nation.

How ironic is it that a nation that highly values an individual's right to life often places the right to own guns in higher regard? Since the beginning of 2018 and up until now, there have been ninety-two gun violence incidents where two or more victims were involved; the major incidents, what the media terms mass shootings, are only the tip of the iceberg.  Part of the misinterpretation is due to the fact that government agencies and the media only use the term "mass shooting/murder" in instances where three or more individuals have died due to injuries. This method, however, grossly misrepresents the real number of people affected by gun violence. As of January 2018, there have been 461 victims of gun violence of which 151 died, according to massshootingtracker.org.

As a result, numerous protests across the country have reignited the debate concerning gun law reform.  The issue is especially meaningful to those who are often at the other end of the barrel, students. The most recent protest engaged more than 2,600 educational institutions and occurred on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting, a tragic period in American history in which two gunmen shot and killed twelve students and one teacher before killing themselves. The Columbine High school shooting held a record number of deaths in a mass shooting but has recently been surpassed by the seventeen deaths of the victims at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.  Since the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School, Gov. Rick Scott signed a controversial bipartisan bill into law. The new law raises the minimum age for purchasing firearms from eighteen to twenty-one, imposes a three-day waiting period for most purchases of long guns, allows certain trained school employees to carry concealed handguns on school campuses, and creates new mental health programs for schools. The bill has been highly criticized by both sides of the debate for 1) punishing law-abiding gun owners and 2) expanding the use of guns on school campuses. Many opponents of the new law have equated the law as a permissible influence of the NRA on government-funded institutions, such as public schools.

The role of America as a world leader is so ingrained into the fabric of our culture that we cannot fall behind in the defense of life in our own country. We once held "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" above all else, the question before us now is what is more valuable than life itself?  Is the right to live more valuable than the right to possess weapons that can potentially end life? The observation some students have made from the events of the past decades is that the Second Amendment is on par with their right to live. As observed by Brendan Smith, a student at Kenwood Academy," the Second Amendment has been used to undermine my First Amendment rights to speak and live long in happiness!"