The coverage of the most recent horrific school shooting in America felt so familiar. Videos of children running from schools, pictures of children at candlelight vigils mourning friends, and stories about lives cut short. But the response to this tragedy also feels different. The calls for commonsense gun control seem muted. Have we given up? Have we become so desensitized to the mass murder of children in our schools that we accept it as normal? It’s not normal and it doesn’t have to be this way.
In 1996, after a school shooting in the U,K,, they passed strict gun regulations. They have had only two mass-shootings since. Following a mass shooting in Australia, they enacted strict gun regulations and implemented a buy-back. There’s been one mass-shooting since, a domestic incident. Gun lobbyists argue that we can’t have sensible gun laws here because of the Second Amendment, but the broad interpretation of the Second Amendment is new. Prior to the late 1970s, even the NRA supported commonsense restrictions. When hardliners took control of the NRA, they began lobbying efforts to change the interpretation. These efforts bore fruit under the conservative court of the 2000s. But a narrower interpretation, one compatible with commonsense gun regulations, existed for hundreds of years. We can return to that. We can stop restricting ourselves to “the Founders intent.” Their intent was that the Constitution be a document that adapted over time and they would have assumed we’d be smart enough not allow this.
Malia Ebel
Sunapee