Retired US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is reframing the debate on guns. His article recommending the elimination of the second amendment will, of course, go nowhere. But it has already started redefining the borders of the conversation.
So let’s talk.
Okay, Second Amenders, no one is trying to take your guns away. We want you to have them if you’re qualified to use them. But let’s talk a little about that amendment you so cherish, you know, the one you think means any doofus can own a tommygun and use it as he or she sees fit against any random evil doer like that Florida girl with the Sinead O’Connor hair-do.
That’s not what this is about. This is about the bad guys with guns, a decent phrase devised by your fraternity, the National Rifle Association, which at one time served a useful purpose but has left it behind as hysteria overtakes it and it dives into an open cesspool.
The kids who live in fear of the next Nikolas Cruz took to the streets this weekend just passed. They marched by the thousands in Washington and hundreds of other locales asking only that they be safe in their schools.
Gun laws and the frozen in amber legislators with no range of motion in their brains are the centerpiece of their campaign. Those legislators are petrified in both senses of the word. And if the kids (and their parents) keep pounding on the cube of amber, they might just replace Congress and some state legislators in this fall’s election.
Justice Stevens rightly points out that there is no constitutional bar against controlling who gets what gun. And like many other critics of the way things have become, he’s not looking to stop you from owning reasonable weaponry. But he points out that the second amendment states some requirements that the court later decided weren’t really there… you know, the part about the “well regulated militia.”
Even the anarchist verbal bomb-thrower Antonin “Tony Ducks” Scalia had no problem with the well regulated idea. It looks like Tony was too liberal for the NRA.
We also note with faint amusement that the company that now owns Remington has put it into bankruptcy. We’d like to believe that it’s because Remington isn’t selling enough guns to be profitable, that people have come to their senses about stockpiling personal weaponry. But that’s not the case.
A wrecking ball -- AKA private equity outfit -- has saddled them with almost a $1 billion in debt it can’t repay. It’s what private equity firms do. But worry not. They’ll restructure that debt, which is another way of saying they’ll kick the can down the road for the moment. And if they run true-to-form they’ll start squeezing money and benefits from their remaining workers.
The PE firm is Cerberus Capital, the same folks who turned Chrysler into a hot mess, using the same time tested recipe.
So, cheers to Justice Stevens. And to Emma Gonzalez the brilliant brush cut kid from Parkland, Florida and all the other Emmas out there. And their parents. And their teachers. And everyone else with the wherewithal to maintain the present momentum.
Keep on keeping on. Don’t stop.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
All sponsored content on this page is parody.
© WJR 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment