Pierce: We Have Many Freedoms in America. Only One Requires These Kinds of Sacrifices.

[mcar]

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a20746864/sante-fe-shooting-texas-high-school/

We Have Many Freedoms in America. Only One Requires These Kinds of Sacrifices.
At least 8 people now have been added to the cost of living in a free nation.


BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
MAY 18, 2018

The Bill of Rights, Explained:

Freedom of Speech means we all have to put up with people who call the president* a pussy-grabbing racist dumbass, and Tomi Lahren, too.

Freedom of the Press means we all have to put up with a world that has porn, and Fox News, too.

Freedom of Assembly means we all have to put up with delays in our trip to the Piggly Wiggly if enough people are angry enough to take to the streets, and the NRA, too.

Freedom of Religion means we all have to put up with Scientologists at our airports and Jehovah’s Witnesses at out front door, and Franklin Graham, too.

The Fourth Amendment means that, occasionally, people are set free because searches are badly conducted. The Fifth Amendment means they can’t make you rat on yourself, not even if they catch you in the act. The Sixth Amendment means everybody gets a trial no matter what the lawyers on cable news say about their crimes.

And the Second Amendment means, apparently, to its most enthusiastic adherents that we have to live with the now more-than-occasional mass murder in our high schools.

There was another unfortunate exercise of Second Amendment freedoms Friday in a place called Santa Fe in Texas. At least eight people now have been added to the cost of living in a free nation. We have many freedoms in America. Only one evidently requires blood sacrifices.

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Maybe we should do what the GOP and rump do, make shit up out of thin air

stats, etc., to effectively get rid of these stupid fucking guns.

I have a question for gun folks, if your Xbox gave off cancer, would you keep using it?

[KG]

2. 8 more sacrifices on the alter of 2A.

[GeorgeGist]

3. The 2nd Amendment needs to die.

[Moostache]

7. I'll settle for "well-regulated" to be the key phrase of the amendment..

Instead of "shall not be infringed"... I don't want hunting rifles, shotguns or sport/target rifles, but I want serious regulation on ammo, ownership liability, manufacturer liability and licenses to own said "arms"...period.

[mcar]

8. +1

[DaDeacon]

12. THIS

Dear God!!! This!!!

[Lonestarblue]

15. Or we could follow what the 2nd Amendment says.

“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.”

We need to ignore that first comma (especially since punctuation at the time was not always consistent). A well-revulated militia is our National Guard and our standing military, which did not exist at the time of this amendment. The right of the people to bear arms to serve in the military or the National Guard shall not be infringed. Of course, this interpretation will never fly in our current environment, but we need to push the well regulated portion harder. Gun crazies conveniently ignore that part.

[farmbo]

17. ++11111

Eom

[Delmette2.0]

4. Don't forget

The 6 in the hospital and countless students and teachers traumatized just by being a witness to the violence.

[mcar]

9. Yes

The effect is so far reaching.

[treestar]

5. Almost like ancient sacrifices

To the sun god.

[IronLionZion]

6. No one discusses the 9th amendment

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

And when was the last time the 3rd amendment was relevant?

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

[VWolf]

10. Here

https://www.theonion.com/third-amendment-rights-group-celebrates-another-success-1819569379

[IronLionZion]

14. The NRA wishes it could be that successful

[Progressive dog]

19. The ninth amendment is where the

right to privacy lives. It is an important amendment.

[calimary]

11. Charlie Pierce again says what I'm thinking.

[mcar]

13. He does that a lot with me

[Uncle Joe]

16. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread mcar

[Martin Eden]

18. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness ...

... are all too often terminated by the 2nd Amendment as currently applied.

Because, for some people ...

Happiness is a warm gun
Bang bang, shoot shoot

[spinbaby]

20. The 2nd amendment infringes on my rights

Aside from my right not to be randomly shot, every major shooting results in increase in security everywhere. I can’t visit an airport, a courthouse, or even an amusement park without being subjected to scans and searches. The latest is hotels demanding to examine your room daily, privacy be damned.

[Martin Eden]

22. Gun nuts claim theor precious keeps them free

But authoritarianism and invasion of privacy result -- same measures as anti-terrorism.

[appal_jack]

21. Terribly flawed analogy.

Last edited Sat Jun 30, 2018, 01:46 PM - Edit history (1)

Pierce is usually so excellent. Rage and ideology are unfortunately clouding his logic here. He is comparing and conflating unfortunate side-effects and technicalities of other liberties with criminal activity related to guns. The criminal equivalents of the 1st, 4th, and 5th Amendments (etc.) are murderous cults, powerful drug cartels, mob racketeering, and so on. Yet, strangely, we only blame the right itself when it comes to the Second Amendment.

Using rights to commit harm is wrong, but that only means that the harmful crimes ought to be prosecuted, not that the rights themselves ought to be tossed into the dumpter.

-app