I have been planning on writing about gun laws all week. There’s an idea I’ve been working on for a while, a legal argument taken to sort of silly extremes to illustrate a point about the ridiculous construction of the Second Amendment that is currently the law in this country. The problem with finishing it has been that there’s nothing at all that makes me want to make humorous points about the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment jurisprudence when people are dying every day in America because the NRA and others who benefit from gun sales continue to flood the zone with money. By the zone, I mean Congress and state elected officials. Because really, there’s no other reason dangerous weapons of war are still freely available, including to people with serious mental illness or a demonstrated propensity to violence, except so other people can turn a profit.
"No one wants this — a country where the number one cause of death for our kids is guns. Gov. Gavin Newsom
I differ with you “no one wants this”, apparently the NRA, firearm manufactures, gun lobbyist, gun enthusiasts, ultra-right Republicans that are and show pictures of them arming their children and those who continually, even after it has been pointed out repeatedly, post, say, write, judicate and legislate that the 2 Amendment gives every citizen a right to own firearms. The Second Amendment does no such thing, and it is way past time that all those folks including Democrats who sing the same lie STOP. I am sick and tired of innocent people dying because of this lie.
We have, “…a well regulated militia” it is the National Guard and Reservists. So, until you all have the courage to own the truth and stop lying, we will keep burying the victims of school shootings, neighborhood shootings, mall shooting, theater shootings, hospital shootings and wherever there is an unhinged or angry person with a firearm willing to kill the innocent.
If you haven't seen it, do watch Senator Sheldon Whitehouse In this May 2nd Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. He has written extensively about SCOTUS, and his demand for Supreme Court reform is worth watching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojOBGTUDPVA
In my cynicism, the first thought I had about trump's team putting forth no defense and requiring a unanimous jury is that someone from trump's camp got to a juror. Wow, I really am cynical. Oh wait, that doesn't feel cynical at all with all the law breaking we've witnessed with our own eyes.
Joyce, three comments: 1) the incredible Fred Guttenberg and Thomas Gabor published. AMERICAN CARNAGE is a masterpiece. 2) VOTE Democrat and bring ten voters to the polls every hour to vote Democrat. 3) We’re in trouble.
May 4, 2023·edited May 4, 2023Liked by Joyce Vance
Professor, thank you for ALL your points this evening. As a retired trial attorney, I appreciate the copy of the jury's correction of the 10 count jury form. In court, I was always alert to assist the clerk & reporter.
I agree completely with Joyce's post. But, I also know nothing will change. In fact, the Right has hardened in its support of gun violence. Gov Greg Abbott dismissed the slaughter of five people in Texas by noting the dead "were illegal". When children, mostly Hispanic, were gunned down in a Uvalde school, Abbott didn't attend one funeral. So they combine their support for gun violence with their racism. The Right does not care because it does not affect them. They don't care about dead children, dead mothers, dead anyone. They. Do. Not. Care. If the gun violence ever comes to the floor of the House or Senate or to their homes or their children, then they may change their minds. Until then, don't count on it.
I will never live long enough to understand the perversity of the Republican governors, House and Senate members! After each mass shooting, it appears that governors and state legislators decide to make it easier and easier to obtain weapons. In what universe does that make sense.
It's poking a finger in our eye and saying: Your life and safety really don't matter. The answer to a bad guy with a gun is not a good guy with a gun; it's everyone and anyone who wants a gun - good guy or not!
I used to watch a lot of MSNBC since I'm home a lot during the day. But when the news broke about the shooting in Atlanta, I refused to watch a replay of a tragedy that occurs daily!
Sorry to be oblivious to the sombre mood arising from the latest mass shooting, but I am so eager to see your piece about our incredibly goofy 2nd amendment jurisprudence. Now that our eminently respectable justices are feeling increasingly free of stare decisis, wouldn't it be nice for them to depart from the "fraud" identified by Chief Justice Burger, and relegate that to the trash heap of history, along with Roe v. Wade and Chevron? (To show you how nerdy I am, it brought tears to my eyes to make a statement about the imminent risk to Chevron. I'm a state bureaucrat now, but at heart I'm still a federal agency staff attorney.) Thanks for this & all your commentary--I read & listen to as much as I can get!
“And the ultimate irony is that the same crowd that insists on having their assault weapons also wants to prevent women from having an abortion, because: pro-life. They are explicitly okay with those babies being mowed down in the nation’s schools, hospitals, shopping malls, and churches once they’re born, with only the thin veneer of thoughts and prayers to notice their deaths.” I have been thinking this for the last twenty years, but I could never have said it as well as you did.
I am awaiting your 2nd amendment article. I'm no lawyer, but I am an historian, and I can tell you everything Scalia wrote about the 2nd amendment was historically inaccurate, including the historical interpretation. The 2nd amendment was not to protect citizens of states from the US as Scalia indicated. The 2nd amendment was to protect the states from the federal government encroaching on the rights of states to protect themselves from armed rebellion from their own citizens. The constitution primarily came about because of intra-state rebellions, culminating with Shay's in Mass. The states, who incidentally "we the people" refers to, not the individuals, were in no mood for a federal system that might consolidate the military and limit the ability of the states to protect themselves from the people within the states. The 2nd amendment was adapted solely for the purpose of regulating guns within the states and by the states because they feared their own citizens from having guns.
So not only was Heller historically incorrect, it was malpractice to his own interpretation of original intent . Of course I think that interpretation itself is misconstrued by interpreting words as intents.
The hell with the second amendment! This is not what they had in mind when it was written. I am in California and just read that the gun group is taking the 10 day waiting for new gun owners to court.
“ a right delayed is a right denied” if that isn’t horse poop I don’t know what it is. How many lives can be saved in those ten days?
As I have noted in the past the change will come when the generations that have lived the rise in gun violence come to power. Not before. Thoughts and prayers- sure the people would rather have their loved ones alive.
I wish I could chock what is happening in our country to hypocrisy. That I can understand. This is more aligned with a faction in the country wanting to destroy everything. That I don't understand.
I’ve finally concluded that “victims” isn’t a strong enough term to describe people lost in American mass shootings. A more accurate term is “involuntary martyrs “. They have been sacrificed to the gun lobby.
"No one wants this — a country where the number one cause of death for our kids is guns. Gov. Gavin Newsom
I differ with you “no one wants this”, apparently the NRA, firearm manufactures, gun lobbyist, gun enthusiasts, ultra-right Republicans that are and show pictures of them arming their children and those who continually, even after it has been pointed out repeatedly, post, say, write, judicate and legislate that the 2 Amendment gives every citizen a right to own firearms. The Second Amendment does no such thing, and it is way past time that all those folks including Democrats who sing the same lie STOP. I am sick and tired of innocent people dying because of this lie.
We have, “…a well regulated militia” it is the National Guard and Reservists. So, until you all have the courage to own the truth and stop lying, we will keep burying the victims of school shootings, neighborhood shootings, mall shooting, theater shootings, hospital shootings and wherever there is an unhinged or angry person with a firearm willing to kill the innocent.
If you haven't seen it, do watch Senator Sheldon Whitehouse In this May 2nd Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. He has written extensively about SCOTUS, and his demand for Supreme Court reform is worth watching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojOBGTUDPVA
Thank you for your strong clear voice. You are a beacon of good sense and good heart.
In my cynicism, the first thought I had about trump's team putting forth no defense and requiring a unanimous jury is that someone from trump's camp got to a juror. Wow, I really am cynical. Oh wait, that doesn't feel cynical at all with all the law breaking we've witnessed with our own eyes.
I do feel like I'm choking on the hypocrisy. I am so damn tired of it.
Joyce, three comments: 1) the incredible Fred Guttenberg and Thomas Gabor published. AMERICAN CARNAGE is a masterpiece. 2) VOTE Democrat and bring ten voters to the polls every hour to vote Democrat. 3) We’re in trouble.
Professor, thank you for ALL your points this evening. As a retired trial attorney, I appreciate the copy of the jury's correction of the 10 count jury form. In court, I was always alert to assist the clerk & reporter.
I agree completely with Joyce's post. But, I also know nothing will change. In fact, the Right has hardened in its support of gun violence. Gov Greg Abbott dismissed the slaughter of five people in Texas by noting the dead "were illegal". When children, mostly Hispanic, were gunned down in a Uvalde school, Abbott didn't attend one funeral. So they combine their support for gun violence with their racism. The Right does not care because it does not affect them. They don't care about dead children, dead mothers, dead anyone. They. Do. Not. Care. If the gun violence ever comes to the floor of the House or Senate or to their homes or their children, then they may change their minds. Until then, don't count on it.
I will never live long enough to understand the perversity of the Republican governors, House and Senate members! After each mass shooting, it appears that governors and state legislators decide to make it easier and easier to obtain weapons. In what universe does that make sense.
It's poking a finger in our eye and saying: Your life and safety really don't matter. The answer to a bad guy with a gun is not a good guy with a gun; it's everyone and anyone who wants a gun - good guy or not!
I used to watch a lot of MSNBC since I'm home a lot during the day. But when the news broke about the shooting in Atlanta, I refused to watch a replay of a tragedy that occurs daily!
Sorry to be oblivious to the sombre mood arising from the latest mass shooting, but I am so eager to see your piece about our incredibly goofy 2nd amendment jurisprudence. Now that our eminently respectable justices are feeling increasingly free of stare decisis, wouldn't it be nice for them to depart from the "fraud" identified by Chief Justice Burger, and relegate that to the trash heap of history, along with Roe v. Wade and Chevron? (To show you how nerdy I am, it brought tears to my eyes to make a statement about the imminent risk to Chevron. I'm a state bureaucrat now, but at heart I'm still a federal agency staff attorney.) Thanks for this & all your commentary--I read & listen to as much as I can get!
“And the ultimate irony is that the same crowd that insists on having their assault weapons also wants to prevent women from having an abortion, because: pro-life. They are explicitly okay with those babies being mowed down in the nation’s schools, hospitals, shopping malls, and churches once they’re born, with only the thin veneer of thoughts and prayers to notice their deaths.” I have been thinking this for the last twenty years, but I could never have said it as well as you did.
I am awaiting your 2nd amendment article. I'm no lawyer, but I am an historian, and I can tell you everything Scalia wrote about the 2nd amendment was historically inaccurate, including the historical interpretation. The 2nd amendment was not to protect citizens of states from the US as Scalia indicated. The 2nd amendment was to protect the states from the federal government encroaching on the rights of states to protect themselves from armed rebellion from their own citizens. The constitution primarily came about because of intra-state rebellions, culminating with Shay's in Mass. The states, who incidentally "we the people" refers to, not the individuals, were in no mood for a federal system that might consolidate the military and limit the ability of the states to protect themselves from the people within the states. The 2nd amendment was adapted solely for the purpose of regulating guns within the states and by the states because they feared their own citizens from having guns.
So not only was Heller historically incorrect, it was malpractice to his own interpretation of original intent . Of course I think that interpretation itself is misconstrued by interpreting words as intents.
The hell with the second amendment! This is not what they had in mind when it was written. I am in California and just read that the gun group is taking the 10 day waiting for new gun owners to court.
“ a right delayed is a right denied” if that isn’t horse poop I don’t know what it is. How many lives can be saved in those ten days?
As I have noted in the past the change will come when the generations that have lived the rise in gun violence come to power. Not before. Thoughts and prayers- sure the people would rather have their loved ones alive.
Great civil discourse as usual. Thank you!
I wish I could chock what is happening in our country to hypocrisy. That I can understand. This is more aligned with a faction in the country wanting to destroy everything. That I don't understand.
Thanks so much for this post.
I’ve finally concluded that “victims” isn’t a strong enough term to describe people lost in American mass shootings. A more accurate term is “involuntary martyrs “. They have been sacrificed to the gun lobby.