America Continues Staring Down the Barrel of a Loaded Gun

It was a warm, clear evening on October 1, 2017, when Sarah Mattern finished applying her Ruby Red lipstick and headed to see Jason Aldean perform with a few girlfriends near Mandalay Bay. They laughed and discussed her upcoming wedding as graceful stage lights began illuminating Aldean’s commanding silhouette, complete with a black, suede cowboy hat. Suddenly, the sound of gunfire engulfed the venue. Bullets rained faster and faster. Sarah scrambled frantically over bloody victims, eventually finding shelter behind a nearby car. After 10 minutes, the gunfire hadn't subsided. All but two of her friends were dead on the scene. 

The 2017 Las Vegas shooting was the deadliest in modern American history—killing 59 and injuring 500. 

 In a country where the Constitution—the age-old social contract that grants the right to bear arms—reigns as supremely as The Bible, it is necessary to make fundamental alterations to decrease violence. At the most basic level, the Constitution should ensure the safety of American citizens. However, so long as it retains the Second Amendment, it protects the rights of few to threaten the livelihoods of all. 

Hear more stories like Sarah’s, and it will become evident: gun violence is a home-grown public health crisis. From 2010 to 2019 alone, mass shootings increased by 900%. Take a moment and wrap your head around that figure. Imagine, this year, instead of one person you know dying at the hands of a drunk driver, ten do. What changes would you expect? Now, replace that car with a gun, and understand that it is the shooter’s Second Amendment right to own that gun that killed your friend. 

Politicians have enacted some convoluted, ineffective legislation to address gun violence. However, there has been no lasting movement to repeal the Second Amendment and protect American citizens from harm.

Upon penning the Constitution, the British had razed villages during the Revolutionary War, and we had too small an organized military to protect our national sovereignty moving forward. The Second Amendment granted citizens the right to bear arms, specifically, to form a militia to supplement an underdeveloped army upon invasion. Today, the American military is the largest, most well-endowed in the world.

Still, approximately 22% of Americans own a gun. On average, they own 4.8 guns each and collectively kill more than 100 people every day. Instead of arming a militia to protect our nation, the Second Amendment enables arming a minority of the population with a significant number of weapons for committing acts of domestic terror. This modern perversion of the Second Amendment to justify unhindered gun ownership is neither rooted in fact nor our nation’s history. Americans no longer own muskets to defend their country at a moment’s notice. They own assault weapons intended for one purpose: to kill.

As is, the Constitution not only perpetuates a promise of gun-ownership but also provides an avenue for elite lobbyists to exacerbate the crisis. The National Rifle Association (NRA) is a de facto lobbyist for hampering gun control legislation and protecting arms manufacturers’ livelihoods. It enables gun manufacturers to launder donations into politics, solidify the Second Amendment's protection, and ultimately, equip more Americans with deadly weapons. The NRA portrays itself as protecting the “freedom of individual gun owners.” Rather, it's working to protect the gun industry's freedom to manufacture and retail weaponry. In tandem with gun manufacturers, the Second Amendment enables the gun lobby to continue arming gun-owners and endangering American lives.

Would you expect increasing drunk drivers behind the wheel to decrease collision fatalities? Gun-owners and self-interest groups weaponize the Second Amendment, echoing the belief: the only thing to protect you from a gun is a gun. In reality, the only thing to protect you from a gun is retracting the right to own one. 

According to a Harvard University analysis, only 0.9% of gun violence in the U.S. occurs out of self-defense. In fact, “protection” and “home security” are the most commonly-used scapegoats to justify ownership of a deadly weapon. That AK-12 with a fully-loaded magazine is not to prevent someone from stealing your family's silver. No Constitution intended to protect its citizens threatens them with unimpeded gun ownership.

The writing on the wall is clear: America is far down a path of grave danger. We can either maintain the status quo of rampant violence or repeal the Second Amendment. Legislators must heed the calls for change emanating from survivors, like Sarah. It's their humane imperative to prioritize the safety of American citizens over the interests of gun-crazed Constitutionalists and manufacturers. Please, repeal the Second Amendment and alter the trajectory of our nation.