Tag Archives: Second Amendment

12,209 Americans Killed by Americans with Guns in 2015

 

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December 2, 2015, 19 Americans were killed and 21 wounded in four incidents, one dead, three wounded in Georgia (Atlanta Journal Constitution), two dead in Texas in two incidents (ABC News) and 14 killed and 17 wounded in San Bernardino, California (NPR). In addition, two of the alleged shooters in California were killed and a police officer was wounded in a subsequent shoot-out with police.

As President Obama said, “We have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world.”  (NY Daily News, ABC News, CBS News.)

A total of 12,209 Americans were shot to death in 350 incidents in the USA thus far in 2015, according to Gun Violence Archive. In 2014 the US population was 318.9 million. So the odds are 0.0038285% – 38.285 in a Million or 1 in 26 thousand (26,119.9) that YOU – or I – will be shot to death in America. That’s better that the one in 175 million chance of winning the Powerball Lottery (Ronald Wasserstein, Huffington Post, here).

Americans are 6,700 times more likely of being shot dead than winning Powerball.

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What Next? – For the 21st Century

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What should we do now?

  1. Strengthen the safety net.
  2. Reverse the Citizens United and Florence v Burlington rulings.
  3. Place reasonable restrictions on Second Amendment rights, as  reasonable restrictions exist on First Amendment rights. And tax properties and income of religious institutions.
  4. Address Climate Change.
  5. Develop a Renewable & Sustainable Energy Infrastructure – Clean & Green within 15.

As President Obama said, in his Second Inauguration, (White House . Gov / The Atlantic)

“The commitments we make to each other …  do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us.  They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.

“We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. 

“The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult.  But America cannot resist this transition, we must lead it. “

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Justice Scalia on the Second Amendment

US Supreme Court Justice Antonin ScaliaJustice Antonin Scalia, interviewed on Fox News, talking about the July 20, 2012, massacre Aurora, Colorado, said,

Obviously the amendment does not apply to arms that cannot be hand carried. It’s to ‘keep and bear’ so it doesn’t apply to cannons but I suppose there are hand-held rocket launchers that can bring down airplanes that will have to be decided…. My starting point and probably my ending point will be what limitations are within the understood limitations that society had at the time.

The segment can be watched here, on YouTube. Continue reading →

The Second Amendment – Revisited

What does the Second Amendment mean in the context of the Aurora Massacre? Columbine? Virginia Tech? Rep. Giffords Town Meeting? The assassination attempt on President Reagan? The assassination attempts on President Ford? The assassinations of President John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr? And conditions in other countries, Syria? Iraq? Iran?

Fat Man and Little Boy“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.”

US Constitution, Bill of Rights, Amendment 2.

Does this give each of us the right to our own nuclear warheads and other weapons of mass destruction? If not, what right does it convey? Continue reading →