During the decade that the Second Amendment was written into the Constitution, the most common rifle owned by an American citizen was a black powder musket.

Experts agree that only a meticulously trained rifleman could fire, at the most, three shots a minute—so it’s safe to assume that for the majority of Americans, two bullets was the maximum. In terms of committing mass murder, an assailant would be better equipped with a knife or a hatchet. It was a far cry from an AR-15, which can annihilate a classroom full of kids in a few heartbeats.

Furthermore, the Amendment states clearly that the purpose of allowing citizens to keep their arms was to ensure their ability to serve in state militias. The wording is straightforward. “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Militias back then weren’t thugs and bullies threatening to kidnap or murder state governors. Instead, they were first formed in 1792 to deal with internal insurrections such as the Shay’s and Whiskey Rebellions. Later ones in the South were maintained to quell slave rebellions. In no way were militias used as an excuse for the psychotic gun sickness now overwhelming our nation.

The Founding Fathers, whatever their faults, were a fairly intelligent bunch. If they witnessed the weekly mass murders and slaughter of schoolchildren being justified under the Second Amendment, they would have judicially rewritten if not entirely scrapped it.

According to Republicans, gun violence is caused by abortions, critical race theory, “woke” culture, single parents, a lack of prayer in schools (actually, kids in school pray every day that they won’t be shot), moral decline, Liberals, lesbians, trans people, Democrats, rap music, and video games. And of course, that old stand-by, mental illness and “hardened criminals.”

In short, they blame everything except the guns.

Obviously, a person who feels compelled to slaughter a classroom full of little children isn’t in his (and it’s always a “his”) right mind. But I’ve learned from personal experience that many of those who suffer from mental illness don’t see themselves that way. Quite the contrary, they feel justified and entitled to inflict their mania on the rest of us and have no compassion or consideration for those they hurt. Likewise, they don’t carry little signs around that advise, “I’m crazy. Please don’t sell me a gun!” Besides, other Western democracies have their share of mentally ill residents yet have managed to avoid the gun mayhem which has become an American trademark.

I’ve spent many decades targeting the Big Lies of the National Rifle Association that has attained cult-like qualities in the decades since I earned one of their sharpshooter certificates in summer camp. Although they rarely assert that Hitler disarmed the Germans and the Jews (he did neither), it’s time to poke more holes in their playbook, which gets parroted by the True Believers whenever a (weekly) gun massacre occurs.

We can begin with their assertion that guns are a defense against the tyrannies of Big Government, “tyranny” being defined as having to wear a mask during a killer pandemic or a seatbelt while driving. Oddly, these tyrannies only exist when the Democrats are in office. Gun advocates are fine when Republican leaders suppress voting and civil rights. As far as taking on the government with their little pop-guns, my response is, “Have you ever contemplated the payload of an F/A-18 fighter-bomber or a Predator drone?”

Then there is the old “They’re going to confiscate all our guns!” bugaboo. No, they aren’t.

I’ve been hearing that nonsense since 1972 and surprise, there are now nearly 400,000,000 guns in America. No politician, no matter how progressive, would suggest such a thing but there is no reason for any American citizen to own an assault weapon. If you want to play tough soldier boy, go help the Ukrainians.

And those “hardened criminals?” I researched the perpetrators of 10 of the worst mass shootings in America and none had a criminal record except Charleston killer Dylan Roof, with minor offenses for trespassing and illegal possession of a pain medication; hardly a hardened criminal’s rap sheet. Further research showed that the motivation behind many of these shootings was hate, not crime-related.

I’ll conclude with the obscene suggestion that teachers bring guns into the classroom. I, for one, will never do that because it only adds to the sickness. In fact, I’d urge every school in America to go on strike until Congress passes a law banning assault rifles. If the most hardened gun fanatic saw the mutilated body of a small child shot with those things, he would go down on his knees and beg for forgiveness.

~

Please consider Boosting our authors’ articles in their first week to help them win Elephant’s Ecosystem so they can get paid and write more.