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I’m Just Sayin’ Dr.T’s column 06/01/2022
All over the world people have mental health concerns. All over the world young people watch videos, play video games with questionable content. All over the world
communities grapple with domestic violence and broken families. Although these issues and concerns affect people and communities all over the world in countries that are both rich and poor, there is one phenomenon that is exclusively American in its pervasive and devastating impact on the lives of the people who live in the United States of America. The epidemic of gun violence, the easy and unfettered access to guns, the fact that there are more guns than people in the United States, and the rampant and increasing incidence of mass shootings that have taken and permanently impacted thousands of lives over the past several decades is uniquely American. Gun violence is NOW the leading cause of death for children in the United States of America. And yet, can the so-called “Greatest” country in the world do nothing to change this horribly tragic phenomenon? For the past decade, we have been in a recurring downward spiral of “ritualistic” performance around the massive loss of life due to our nation’s addiction to weapons of war. The response of our national leaders and politicians is oh so predictable! Repeatedly, they use the same tired “talking points” as if they are speaking the gospel truth when they KNOW they are lying and deflecting.
These leaders and politicians hope that after the initial shock, grief and national attention subsides “America” will once again be distracted by time and turn their passion and attention elsewhere until the next massacre occurs. These leaders KNOW that there will be a next time because they have done NOTHING to ensure that it cannot happen again. They know if they do nothing then nothing will happen! And it has become clear that they do not care. They have no intention of intervening in the mass killing of our children in their classrooms and college campuses. They have no intention of offering any remedy for the carnage inflicted upon innocent civilians in their places of worship, community gatherings, shopping centers, nightclubs, or grocery stores. They are lying to ALL of us. They are pretending, as they “feign care for the victims” and wring their hands with consternation and “perform” a type of concern.
The 2nd Amendment has become AMERICA’S NIGHTMARE. The “Founding Fathers” could never have imagined the invention of the AR-15 Assault Rifle. Nor could they have ever imagined the carnage and chaos that would be caused by untrained, emotionally immature teenage boys having unfettered and unregulated access to these weapons designed to kill, maim, subdue, and destroy the enemy on the battlefield of war. It is certain that the massacre of children and other innocent civilians is NOT what the intent of the 2nd amendment or an individual’s “2nd amendment rights” was supposed to accomplish. NO matter what argument, deflection or outright LIES these political operatives of the gun industry tell us, we ALL know the TRUTH. The language of the 2nd Amendment does not give you the right to own weapons of war, or unlimited amounts of ammunition. That language is NOT in the amendment. The amendment states the following: “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.” What has happened over the decades is an ever-evolving and expanding “interpretation” of this amendment. But what is striking are the first four words of the sentence because they give context for everything else that follows. “A well-REGULATED Militia” is not about an individual or an individual’s right to own weapons, especially an AR-15 military-grade-style weapon. No. The definition of militia is a military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army in an emergency. These terms even with a loose definition do NOT give individuals the ”right” to obtain and bear arms specifically for their personal use. That is NOT stated anywhere in the amendment. However, fanatical proponents of so-called 2nd Amendment rights” have re-interpreted the language and intent of the amendment for the purpose of giving unregulated and unlimited “rights” to people who use their so-called freedom to commit heinous massive acts of murder on innocent children and the civilian population while allowing BIG business to earn billions and billions of dollars for the purpose of maintaining their power and privilege.
The sad truth is that these people who we have put “in charge” of our governing legislative body to create laws to protect our “civil society” care more about their personal power and privileges than they do about protecting this nation’s citizenry. They love their Guns MORE than they love our children. #VOTEthemOUT