2017-10-18
Liberty, Rights, Privileges and
Responsibilities
The issues surrounding the recent history
in Las Vegas have given me some great pause - to think and reflect.
I think about all the families which will never be the same - some
59 families who will endure a future of pain. Even when time heals,
this will take a long time. Then there are those families impacted
by having been wounded — and some how we loose count. Then there
are all those families impacted by the experience - whether having been
there, or having been a responder. All these families impacted
by the senseless actions of one other person who escaped the pain by
having killed himself.
And then I wonder about the issue of whether
one person has the right to so profoundly impact others. Does the
right to have a gun outweigh community rights for safety and security -
the right to peaceful assembly.
The issue to me has less to do with
the rights specified in the Second Amendment, but more about the rights
specified in the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence - the right
to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Or, sometimes I
think about the Preamble of the Constitution which reads,
We
the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common
defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty
to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution
for the United States of America.
This preamble speaks about
“a more perfect union,” and “justice,” and “domestic
tranquility,” and “general welfare.”
It does not
discuss the concept that the rights of one exceed the rights of the many -
it really does seek to create community.
Yet, some how, we
have allowed the rights of one person to own a gun, and to use a gun, or,
in this case to own and use an arsenal more befitting a small army, to
exceed the rights of the community.
How did we let this
happen?
It’s not about the Second Amendment rights
to “bear arms.” It’s not. But the discussion has become
more about the excessive and over weening right of a single person.
Where’s the balance.
Perhaps I have a unique vantage point.
When my vision declined to a place where I should not have
been driving, the State of Maine revoked my privileges to drive a
car. They should have. And, they did it quickly.
My
rights as a driver should never have entitled me to drive a car and to
endanger others. How fortunate for me that I didn’t cause an
accident or hurt a person. The state did its job despite my own
wishes and needs. My rights as a driver could never exceed the
community’s rights to safety.
So, I wonder.
Why do
the right of each person to own a gun exceed the rights of the community
to find “a general welfare?”
There are times when I do
speculate if I could purchase a gun. Conceivably, I could own a gun
- even though I could not see well enough to properly shoot a
gun. Isn’t that a silly situation? Consider a nearly
blind man with a shotgun.
We need to address the issue of
individual rights versus community rights, and perhaps we have let the
pendulum swing too far in one direction.
This was originally
warrant on October 18, 2017. Here we are, almost three weeks later
with yet another shooting. How many people will loose their lives,
and how many families be irreparably harmed before we take some kind of
action?