In The Right Kind Of Gun Rights Jonathan Rauch writes about our central right to defend ourselves. He illustrates this with a story about a gay fellow who successfully defended himself from a gay bashing mob.
The Supreme Court is soon to decide a case that deals with the line between self defense and irrational excess. And it appears that the only reasonable option is to impose a standard of “reasonableness” on the Second Amendment.
That amendment…may have made sense in 1790, but today the insurrectionary rationale would seem to imply a right to keep and bear surface-to-air missiles and grenade launchers, among other things…the Court would clear up confusion about the Second Amendment by unambiguously identifying the core right it protects as reasonable self-defense by competent, law-abiding adults.
Reasonable self-defense leaves room for firearms regulation. Exotic and highly destructive weapons could be restricted or banned, because no one needs a machine gun or grenade launcher for protection against ordinary crime. Felons, not being law-abiding adults, could still be barred from gun ownership.
Most of the government’s gun laws, in fact, would have no trouble passing the self-defense test, …because most gun laws are reasonable and don’t leave people defenseless. As for the insurrectionary purpose of the Second Amendment, the Court could either repudiate it explicitly or pass over it in silence, consigning it to irrelevance.
The self-defense test is good policy, because it aligns the Second Amendment with modern needs and sensibilities. It is good law, because it rescues the amendment from being a dead letter or an embarrassment.
I would prefer that all guns were banned because I am more scared of being caught in crossfire than I am of being the object of an attack. And if I were the object of an attack my ability to anticipate it is so limited that I would have to live in constant paranoia for a gun to make a difference. It is not a life I choose to live.
But I accept that society evolves at its own pace and ours is not yet ready to let go of our gun legacy, while most other modern cultures around the world have. Unfortunately things may have to get much worse before they get better. And I am sad for the inevitable heartbreak.
Born 1950, Married, Living in Austin Texas, Semi
Retired Small Business owner and investor. My political interest
evolved out of his business experience that the best decisions come out of an objective gathering of information and a pragmatic consideration of costs and benefits. I am interested in promoting Centrist candidates and Policies. My posts are mostly about people and policies that I believe are part of the solution rather the problem.