Pat Bullard, My Turn: Second Amendment shouldn’t allow anyone to destroy another’s right to life

Published 12:00 am Thursday, June 2, 2022

By Pat Bullard

T

he Second Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights passed by Congress in 1791. I fail to see how it grants one individual the right to destroy another individual’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and to arm oneself with weapons designed for war for a mass killing of the enemy.

In 1994, the U.S. Congress banned assault weapons and mass shootings dropped by 43%.   When the GOP-controlled Congress in 2004 let the ban expire, mass shootings have shot up by 239%. Approximately 50,000 are shot or wounded by guns each year in the U.S. Gun violence is by far highest in the U.S. than any other civilized nation. As Leonard Pitts said in his column (May 30), it only happens here.

Each child murdered and mutilated had a heartbeat until they were murdered. And for how many years have children been traumatized by these mass murders in their schools, and being trained how to deal with an active shooter in their school?    I was shocked to learn my kindergartner great-grandchild five years ago had to undergo frequent drills to deal with a possible active shooter at her school.

We are not interested in taking  away your personal gun for hunting or home protection, if you are licensed, responsible  and keep them under lock and key. But we are way beyond grief having people massacred and mutilated by idiots who should not be in possession of such weapons, especially weapons of destruction designed for the battlefield and not an individual’s use. And an 18-year-old being able to buy a weapon of mass destruction? There were children murdered in Texas last week whose faces were so mutilated by an assault weapon that DNA from their parents had to be used to identify them.

And I have read of at least eight mass shootings in the U.S. since then, although not as horrendous, mass shootings. Only in the U.S.

The right to bear arms should not supersede the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for the rest of us. Yes, it is a political issue as well and we must vote against any and all who love their guns more than they love our children.

For those who argue, but we do love our children, actions speak louder than words. Obstructionist GOP are beholden to NRA money and gun manufacturers and have refused to act on  gun safety issues put forward by Democrats for the years since 2004.

Pat Bullard lives in China Grove.