Category: SCOTUS
-
The Emperor Is Naked And So’s His Gun
California experienced at least two mass shootings yesterday. One in Monterey Park (near LA), the other in Half Moon Bay, not far from San Francisco. Both, it appears, were angry men using firearms (instead of therapy) to resolve their emotional issues. That’s a pretty regular part of many (if not most) mass shooting incidents – […]
-
We’re Having The Wrong Debate About The 2nd Amendment And Guns: “Own” Isn’t In The 2A
This is very much an “Emperor’s New Clothes” situation. America watches a naked king ride by every day while pretending that this bloated, pink-skinned, pimply-and-pock-marked monarch is clothed. As we sit here today, we have it in our heads that the Second Amendment guarantees all Americans the right to own all the guns they want. […]
-
Does the 2A Really Guarantee Individual Gun Ownership? No, It Does Not!
Sandy Hook… Uvalde… Las Vegas… Orlando… Marjory Stoneman… Columbine… Every-damned-day-in-America! How the hell did it come to this? True Fact: we have been bamboozled into accepting a bullshit framing of the Second Amendment. We have it in our heads now that the 2A is a gun *rights* amendment. It’s the exact opposite – there is […]
-
Republicans Are What Happens When Tribalism Goes Nuclear
Americans are going to the polls – at a mid-term – in record numbers. That includes a lot more of the youth vote than has ever voted before. It also includes a lot more women. They registered to vote – many for the first time – because the Supreme Court took away their rights! And, […]
-
Every Christian I Know Is Paul On The Road To Damascus
Yesterday, as the Supreme Court closed out a session historical for its radical Christian lurch backwards toward an America that was, We The People got reminded (harshly) that extreme religiosity and democracy are mutually exclusive propositions. From abortion to guns to clean air, the religious extremists on the court (and how the bloody hell did […]
-
The Second Amendment Emperor Is Naked: He Doesn’t “OWN” Anything!
It’s not a hard ask. All I want is for someone to point to the word “own” anywhere in the Second Amendment. I’ve been putting this idea out there now for a couple of weeks and the only argument that comes back – other than I’m an idiot (for pointing out a true thing) – […]
-
America’s Gun Crisis Is Foundational But Fixable – Just Like Chicago’s John Hancock Tower
We tell ourselves this every day now: no other country has the gun problem America has. Gun violence happens here the way peace and quiet happen everywhere else. It’s the missing guns that make the difference. Part of why our gun problem feels intractable is because we make it that way. It doesn’t have to […]
-
We’ve Been Framing The Gun Debate All Wrong: There IS NO RIGHT TO GUN “OWNERSHIP” In The 2nd Amendment
I’m not sure if anyone’s ever made this argument before. If they did, I’m not sure how we got past it. If James Madison – the author of the Second Amendment – saw us arguing today about the sacred right of gun ownership in America, he’d want to shoot himself in the head. Hopefully, he’d […]
-
America’s Gun Laws Have Been Written BY White People FOR White People And To PROTECT White People
I repeat: America’s gun laws have always been written BY white people FOR white people, the whole point being to protect WHITE people (from everyone else). In fact, the history of America’s gun laws – after the Second Amendment was written (and the gaming of the Second Amendment began) – is the history of white […]