The search for blameThe search for blame
by sonya hammond
In the barrage of words that have been, and will continue to be spoken and written in the wake of the tragedies of children being killed by children, solutions will be sought and questions will plead for answers.
Few, if any, among us would argue the need to seek and question before more innocent victims are slaughtered or injured, but powerful - and some wealthy - factions will, against all logic, continue to obstruct controls on guns on the grounds that to deny our right to possess them stomps on our constitutional right to 'bear arms'.
That 'right' was seen as a constitutional necessity in a different time in this country's history, a time when the common people had risen up in outrage to free themselves from a monarchy bent on abolishing or obstructing the most basic rights they deemed unalienable.
In the aftermath of that unprecedented historical success, it probably seemed reasonable to legislate the right to maintain a Militia to secure the State, and, thereby, the 'right of the people to keep and bear arms', but the wording of the Second Amendment to the Constitution may well have been interpreted beyond its original intent.
While that would undoubtedly be argued by the usual horde of gun lovers and constitutional lawyers, the fact remains that the founding fathers could not have known the extent to which arms would proliferate, the rampant misuse to which they would be put, nor the sophisticated evolution of their characters and capacities. We, however, now live in a time when this has become all too self-evident.
It is easy, legitimate, and self-absolving, to place some blame on television and movies for their aggrandizement of weapons and violence; to insist that children are seduced by the 'entertainment' industries into believing that weapons are synonymous with heroics, and that killing is an acceptable solution to their problems.
It is easy, legitimate, and equally self-absolving, to blame the media for reporting, often in gruesome detail, the ever-escalating number of deaths by gunfire that seem to occur daily in our society, to the point that these almost lose their shock value and become simply 'the way it is'.
But it also seems legitimate to blame our legislators, whose fear of even approaching the subject of gun control has already passed epidemic proportions.
Persistently lobbied by the NRA, whose bottomless pockets can apparently buy or terrify even supposed 'liberals', our state and federal governments dance around the issue with the delicacy of ballerinas in tutus, passing the occasional law that will least offend the NRA, while hopefully pacifying an outraged public.
Where is the right in the 'right' to bear weapons that were never intended to hunt game, but are meant to destroy human life?
There is nothing right about parents owning guns that are not sufficiently secured from their children's access.
There is no right in the 'right' of anyone to purchase a gun without being thoroughly investigated.
Most of all, does the 'right' in the Second Amendment really extend to bearing arms completely unnecessary 'to the security of the State'? Read it as you will, a home in which a rifle and two hand guns exist [along with a child whose fascination with guns is an obsession] will never fit that intent.
The media, insufficient laws, lack of funds, even parents and schools, may all share some portion of the blame for what happened at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon.
And there is a need for all of us to heed warning signs given by disturbed children - report them to anyone who will listen - and to find and reinforce both the ways and means to help them.
But much blame lies squarely on the shrinking shoulders of state and federal legislators who must face reality and cease to cringe every time the NRA snarls 'unconstitutional' or offers to line their pockets.
We, the people they have forgotten, can tell them very simply that we've had ...
Express our outrage, force them to look at the pictures of young faces gone forever or wounded for life - and vote them out of office if they don't respond.
©sonya hammond, 1998