Gun rights supporters have scored recent victories in courts in California and Texas related to handguns and the ability to carry guns in public. The Senate is currently battling over a legislative response to the Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc v. Bruen. That ruling declared it was unconstitutional for a New York state law to mandate that concealed carry license applicants show a need for self-defense. Gun reform activists point to the rash of mass shootings in the U.S., such as the March 27 shooting in Nashville, as evidence that restricting access to guns should be a priority for lawmakers. Straight Arrow News contributor Ruben Navarrette says common sense has gone out the window with regard to gun rights. He argues that you can support the Second Amendment and want gun reform, too.
There really are people out there who care more about protecting the right to own a gun than our responsibility to keep our children safe.
They stopped making sense years ago. The same people who think we should scale back the First Amendment when they’re offended by an idea, who wiped their feet on the Fourth Amendment in the name of being tough on crime, and who don’t let the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment preclude the death penalty, those same people think the Second Amendment is sacred and absolute. They think that the right to bear arms somehow extends to being able to buy any gun in any quantity, at any time without any restrictions.
They’re okay with age limits if we’re talking about how a person needs to be 21 to walk into a casino, or buy a drink at a bar. But they think that person should be able to buy a rifle at 18. And they don’t seem troubled by the fact that since 1791, the year that the Second Amendment was ratified, we have moved swiftly from the musket to the Winchester to now the AR-15 assault rifle.
As a son of a retired cop who grew up with several guns in the house, literally a rifle sitting above the fireplace, someone raised in farm country, full of pickup trucks with gun racks, I don’t hate guns. And I’m not afraid of guns. But nor do I love guns or worship them. I am, however, quite fond of common sense. What it tells me is that you can support the Second Amendment and consider sacred the rights to use a firearm to defend yourself, your family, or your home, and still think we should be able to impose limits on what kind of guns get manufactured, bought, and owned. One doesn’t interfere with the other.
