Answering Joe Biden’s question about ”why”

May 26, 2022 17 Comments

In his Wednesday-night address to the nation following the school massacre in Texas, an anguished President Joe Biden asked some questions, after saying most Americans favor “common sense” gun laws.

Target shooting at the range

“I just got off my trip from Asia, meeting with Asian leaders, and I learned of this while I was on the aircraft.  And what struck me on that 17-hour flight — what struck me was these kinds of mass shootings rarely happen anywhere else in the world. 

“Why?  They have mental health problems.  They have domestic disputes in other countries.  They have people who are lost.  But these kinds of mass shootings never happen with the kind of frequency that they happen in America.  Why?”

Biden knows the answer. 

Those nations do not have a Second Amendment — which is one sentence:

“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.”

Yes, there has been debate about the meaning of “militia,” but the U.S. Supreme Court — even when majority liberal — affirmed an individual right to own firearms.

Back to Biden:

“Why are we willing to live with this carnage?  Why do we keep letting this happen?  Where in God’s name is our backbone to have the courage to deal with it and stand up to the lobbies?”

It is not the gun lobby.

It is the U.S. Constitution.

If you want to change the carnage, the only certain way is to change the Constitution.

I am a gun owner. I am licensed to carry.

I bought my first pistol about 30 years ago, after I had received death threats — some apparently credible — from some people who didn’t like my published opinions.

I reported them to the police, who gave me some advice on defensive safety measures — such as changing my daily routine — and also some advice on arming myself.

Why carry a gun? Because police arrive after a crime has been committed, not before.

I might have bought a firearm anyway, because I enjoy the sport of target shooting. I have no interest in shooting animals.

Back to Biden:

“For every parent, for every citizen in this country, we have to make it clear to every elected official in this country: It’s time to act.

“It’s time — for those who obstruct or delay or block the commonsense gun laws, we need to let you know that we will not forget.

“We can do so much more.  We have to do more,” Biden said.

The “so much more” won’t account for much.

In a previous column I endorsed universal background checks, closing the gun-show loophole, and other “gun safety” measures.

But don’t ban so-called “assault rifles.” It’s been tried before and the number of deaths barely changed, and homicide by rifle accounts for about 5% of gun deaths. So-called “assault rifles” are  a too-easy target. Sorry for the pun. If you want to argue it’s better than nothing, OK.

These may help on the margins, but they will not stop the epidemics of sociopaths killing people.

Too many sociopaths acquired the weapons legally.

As long as anyone — other than felons and mental patients — can legally acquire a gun, we will have gun deaths.

The only true solution is to erase the Second Amendment.

Cancel it.

I offer this to those who are tormented, but limit their activity to Tweet and Facebooking.

If you want to end the bloodshed — end what’s sometimes callled 2A.

Here’s how it works: An amendment must pass a two-thirds vote of both Houses of Congress, or, if two-thirds of the States request one, by a convention called for that purpose. 

The amendment must then be ratified by three-fourths of the State legislatures, or three-fourths of conventions called in each State for ratification.

Is it difficult? Yes!

It is supposed to be, to thwart the heat of momentary emotions. If it happened, it would raise the issue of gun confiscation, but that is a topic for another day.

But it is possible, and gets more so with every dead child’s body underneath a school desk.

It can’t happen unless someone starts something,

17 thoughts on “Answering Joe Biden’s question about ”why””

  1. HAPPY THURSDAY !!!
    pallie,
    Like you, we have guns in our house. Like you, we believe in the constitution. Like everyone, we want to put an end to this senseless bloodshed. Talks cheap. President Obama and Vice President Biden tried to put together a bipartisan committee to stop the massacres. Nothing. President Trump and Vice President Pence tried the same. Nothing. The talk you hear now was proposed by Trump. Still nothing.
    sidebar: this reminds me of us talking about the constitution. I said something like it took a handful of geniuses less than a year to write the constitution. Given the time, I think that they were aliens. Someone said, to your people they probably were. How about to every people. These signers were not only educated, but educated way beyond the norm. All had degreeS. Most spoke several languages. Could we say that they were very much ahead of their time ?
    Here we are, not being able to get 500 politicians to agree on one item. 2A. Keep in mind that the rest of the world does NOT have this problem. Joey forgot to mention that little zinger. No body else has guns ! The rest of the world has a different problem. TERRORISTS. Terrorists kill, blow up things and destroy.
    Were does that leave us. Right back playing Monday morning quarterback. If you want to stop the bloodshed, contact your elected officials. Give them a sound practical possible solution.
    My biggest complaint is associated with mental issues. My wife and I had a serious debate on this subject yesterday. She is hard line 2 A. I see the need for change. I question the accountability of ‘passing guns through the family’. examples: Dad dies, the guns get shared through the family. One brother suffers from PTSD, should he have guns? One brothers wife has mental issues. Should there be guns in that house ?
    Do you see the problems ?
    Tony

  2. Communist regimes killed millions of their own unarmed citizens. The second amendment was always meant to prevent tyrannical governments from having power or life and death over the ordinary person. Gun control is not the solution to this problem.
    Of course, the constitution works best when the people are a moral people (I think John Adams said something to that affect). We as a nation have turned away from God and our communities are rotten within. The true problem is our spiritual deadness.

    3. If the problem is we’ve turned away from God, why did he allow mass shootings in Houses of Worship? ……and why does he continue to allow mass shootings with all the “prayers” sent after the last one, and the one before that, and the one before THAT?

      1. God gave us free will, so we can choose to do evil or to do good. Sadly there will always be people who chose to do evil and also there will be people who lack the courage to stop them. There will be people who selflessly help others as well; I thank God for them. However, the Bible also describes a God who is close to the broken-hearted, and one who will destroyed death itself. “On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.” From Isaiah 25:6-8. To paraphrase the evangelist Ray Comfort, in the Old Testament God says he will destroy death, and in the New Testament he shows how he did it, by the sacrificial atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross and his resurrection from the dead.

  3. Stu – to slightly re-state one of your points above:
    “When seconds count, the police are minutes away.”

    As to those assault rifles…many moons ago, I purchased a surplus WW2 M-1 Carbine, a slightly smaller version of the standard issue M-1 Garrand. Sometime later, NJ was kind enough to place the carbine version of the M-1 on their banned assault rifle list, so I had to sell it. Go figure.

      1. I’m trying to reply to your entire piece, but for some reason I can’t. …. Here goes… do other countries have LOCKED schools?…Even if schools are all locked, how about Night clubs? Walmarts? Supermarkets? Houses of Worship?… and then of course there are outdoor shootings… sports events, street violence… road rage….. And lets not forget the gun accidents. And the suicides. Don’t other country’s have crazy minds? But the crazies don’t have easy access to guns. Nor do the clinically depressed. Nor do small children playing in their parents closet. We do agree on some things. REPEAL THE SECOND AMENDMENT.

        1. Naomi, I already wrote columns saying the only solution is to repeal the Second Amendment, as recently as a few days ago.
          Other nations do have lockdowns, Israel for one.

          1. Israel is not the best example because it is a Country facing ongoing threats from the Palestinians and other close neighbors determined to kill them. I wonder if Schools must be locked in, say Canada? Or France, or England, or Germany? I really don’t know, but would be surprised if they were locking up their schools.

  4. There are tough and widespread laws in place to prevent/control illegal drug sales and use. How’s that working out? Is anyone naïve enough to believe more gun laws will stop the killing by pistol/rifle? These mass shootings say something deep and scary about us as a people, not about the weapons we use to kill each other. Despite these horrible mass shootings, I feel safer in a country where the people are allowed to arm themselves than I would feel in a country where only the government is armed.

  5. What within the law is permissible, and can stand the legal test of past decisions on the second Amendment? Last time I made some suggestions I was demonized as anti-American to disarm or in some way hinder our full time milia. I echo again that those in leadership must reach a consensus within the law that can make these tragedies difficult to happen. If we can make unbreakable bike locks, then why not the same for biometric trigger locks mandated with every new weapon. Yes, they can be breached by various tools but until facial recognition is capable for weapons at least in the home have locks. And of course, the time to use the print to release the trigger guard could cost the time to fire a defense against an evil intruder. When you renew your driver’s license you also renew your permit to carry and also must have a trigger lock applied to your weapons. Gun shows, background checks are band-aids, but it could stop some sick shooters with mental problems. I know the pro and con of every suggestion made but we have to place the lives of children and all citizens under cover of the second Amendment in ways to save lives from the abuse of the Amendment. It is just incredible that a militia stands ready to protect our citizens from outside attack but cannot prevent mass killings of our most vulnerable from internal attack.

    1. I do not see the point of trigger locks, which protect your gun against being used by someone else. In most cases the killer used his own gun or one given to him.

  6. I don’t know the answers either. Like most, I am confronted by well-meaning people following these tragic events who say “we gotta do something.” My polite response is always…
    (1) Clearly state the policy/policies you would enact that will end these senseless killings (this is a stumper for most people).
    (2) How many lives will be saved by these policies once enacted (the most common answer is “even if it saves one life it’s worth it.” Translation: they have no idea)?
    (3) How will you measure the number of lives saved (another stumper)?

Comments are closed.