President Joe Biden said today that he was “deeply disappointed” in the Supreme Court’s ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. The ruling struck down New York citizens from having to provide proof of need to have a concealed carry permit. As usual, he believes that this will only lead to more gun violence and death.
Biden believes that there should be less accessibility to firearms, not more. He is calling for all “Americans across the country to make their voices heard on gun safety. Lives are on the line.” Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) of New York is said to have stated that the 2nd Amendment was written when all we Americans had were muskets, and that she is prepared to go back to muskets.
But is the accessibility to and the availability of firearms in America the reason for recent violence? Will stopping a New Yorker from carrying a 9mm pistol under his stop the next teen in black from illegally obtaining an AR-15? Will changing laws that allow law-abiding citizens to carry legally obtained weapons convince the average criminal to lay down his? Of course not.
I would say that it’s not the availability and accessibility that’s the problem; it’s what’s causing people to use them in ways they never did 40 years ago.
If you were to remove all the guns from America overnight, you would still have people who are bent on killing as many others as possible. And when they do, they will become stars overnight.
As I was thinking about this today, I began thinking back to the 90’s when all this really started. What caused that shooting at Columbine? What have been the common denominators between nearly all mass shooters? Was it simply the fact that they were able to get their hands on a weapon?
What I see as common factors are depression, isolation, feelings of futility, low self-worth, bitterness and hate toward the innocent. Where is all this coming from? Are guns making people this way?
No. But when you remove intrinsic and objective reality and truth from souls in search of meaning, acceptance, and genuine love, what you get is a dark, hateful void where honor, duty, responsibility, and love used to be.
When America was a nation with a collective vision and understanding of right and wrong based on moral absolutes, mass shootings were unthinkable. But now we are rearing generation after generation without offering objective truth while also promoting a technological culture in which the individual becomes the center of his own universe. In this universe, the other people are only in the way.
Blood. People died so that I could vote. That should be good enough.
The Recovering Legalist 