This week is my birthday. However, for years, I have not truly celebrated it. Similar to fellow Americans, I remain in a state of sadness. Two years ago, it was a knee to the neck of George Floyd. At the time, I wrote about the virus of racial violence and that disease has only metastasized.
Today, the lives of 19 children and two adults were taken by the uniquely American epidemic of gun violence. In 1791, the Second Amendment was ratified; however, this central tenet of the Bill of Rights was carefully authored by James Madison and debated for years beforehand.
According to Madisonian thought, a true constitutional balance of power entailed a “well-regulated” right to bear arms. The Republican Party defends the filibuster in the name of checks and balances, but will they defend the lives of children utilizing identical logic?
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This similarly constructed argument ought to protect the right of our government, and by extension the hearts, minds, and confidence of the American people, to intensely monitor the sale of guns in the United States, as it is part of our foundational framework. The filibuster is merely a relic of the Jim Crow South.
I implore our leaders to summon whatever intestinal fortitude they still possess to draft legislation demanding background checks, bans on firearms for domestic abusers and the mentally ill, and the plethora of common-sense reforms we must institute to honor Madison’s thoughtful and foresightful legacy.
We owe it to our children to pass comprehensive gun reform legislation.
Henry J.H. Wilson, Barrington
Anything to satisfy a rabid base
Following the latest school shooting in Texas, if I see even one letter from a Second Amendment zealot about how guns aren’t the problem, people are, my head will explode.
We’ve listened to the gun lobby and their paid shills in Congress come up with one excuse after another for not doing anything on gun control. It’s a mental illness problem. The current laws are not being enforced. It’s wrong to blame gun owners for one bad apple. My right to bear weapons of mass destruction trumps your right to live a safe and peaceful life. It makes me sick.
You ask, is the country going in the wrong direction? It sure is, but it’s not because of a growing secularism in our society. It’s because the Republicans will do anything to satisfy their rabid base of supporters. If you vote for them, you share some blame for what happened, and what will certainly happen again.
Richard Keslinke, Algonquin
Vote them out
Here we are again as Americans, getting grim news of our babies being gunned down like animals. Every politician who does not lend solid support for strong/stiff gun control laws to protect our angels should be called out and voted out. Enough is enough!
Mark Wilkins, Bronzeville
