Second Amendment Rights rooted in a different period
Former Justice John Paul Stevens claimed that five words will change the U.S. governments approach to gun rights. He suggests adding "when serving in the militia" to the clause which was intended to preserve the security of the United States. Therein lies the crux. The U.S. was not the global power that it now is at the inception of the American Constitution on September 17, 1787. The American Civil War was a post constitutional event that covered the period 1861 - 1865 involving the secession of southern states and the argument over slavery. The northern states were becoming more industrialized (the popular term - "Rust Belt" applies to this day) and relied on smaller farms where the south had plantations and relied on slaves to produce their principle commodity - cotton. President Lincoln enlisted troops for the war effort that was promulgated when rebels stormed Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina.
And so, the use of arms among civilians was embedded in law, though, the Constitution was not amended after the Civil War to restrict gun ownership, instead, treating ams like utensils. The rights of the individual versus societal needs regarding gun laws is pretty clear, yet, America sees arms as an industry to the tune of six guns sold in 2021 for every one hundred Americans according to Forbes Magazine (Jan.5, 2022.) Indeed, gun sales increased in 2020 over 2019 64%, a massive increase that would have been spurred by COVID 19. Still, the Federal government fails to acknowledge the problem in a meaningful way. After every Sandy Hooks, or recent racially fuelled tragedy in Buffalo or todays utter nuclear disaster in Texas, where 19 children and two adults were shot dead by an 18 year old male shooter, the same age and gender as the recent Buffalo shooter who killed American officials will ask for God's help in helping American's through another crisis that could gave beed mitigated with as bit more common sense. If you have a child going to school in the U.S. parents must demand more security at every school, home school their kids, or more to a safer jurisdiction. Up to 2021 there are no bans on semi automatic assault rifles as Congress allowed the ten year old Clinton (D) era ban to expire during the George W Bush (R) Presidency first term (2004.) Successive administrations, including two-term Barrack Obama failed to act on the ban on automatic rifles. Canada has its own gun issues, too: Canada has 34.7 guns per 100 people and .5 gun homicides per 100,000 - second to the U.S. 120.5 per 100 civilians and 4.12 homicides per 100,000 people. (Council on Foreign Relations 2019.) However, in Canada it is illegal to own a fully automatic weapon.
President Biden (D) said in the aftermath: "When are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?" The NRA is known to hold sway with the Republican Party and can veto amendments. The NRA has influenced the judiciary, as well. Leading up to the Mid Terms, the Democrats control the House 221-208, while the Republicans control the Senate 50-48 with two independents. With further political deadlock in sight, the opportunity to amend these arcane gun laws remain a concept. President Biden would be wise to act on escalating the ban on assault rifles with bi-partisan support. Pew Research reports that there were 45,222 gun related deaths in 2020 comprised of murder/suicide and unintentional according to the CDC (Centre for Disease Control.)
