“Their paranoid fear of a possible dystopic
future prevents us from addressing our actual dystopic present. We can’t even
begin to address 30,000 gun deaths that are actually, in reality, happening in
this country every year — because a few of us must remain vigilant against the
rise of Imaginary Hitler.”
Jon Stewart "The Daily Show"
Comedian Chris Rock, when
asked about gun violence said:
“I believe you should have to have a mortgage
to buy a gun. Nobody with a mortgage has ever gone on a killing spree. Because
a mortgage is a real background check; and you know if you go to jail for 30
years you still have to pay your f–king mortgage.”
My comment on Rock: If we are trying to do
what the founders wished, this is certainly in line with their sentiments that
property owners were the true citizens.
But I wish to caution against using the founders as our absolute
measuring stick. It was a very different
time and place, one to which I as an educated, voting woman, have no wish to
return.
My comment on the second amendment: I truly believe that
[it] was intended as a civic and collective responsibility: to
allow New Jersey to protect itself against New York, for Maine to fight off
Canada, and For New England to withstand the Federal Gov’t if FDR had stood for
a fifth term. The regulation of the individual
right to bear arms outside of the well ordered militia, should be reserved to
the state. However, in order for the
state to be able to assert its sovereign rights, the federal government needs
to regulate the interstate commerce of guns, its job. If Virginia
allows anyone to buy 100 automatic handguns, how can Rhode Island
