From the Barrel of a Gun

 In the beginning was the King and his Soldiers.

They were empowered to maintain control over the Colonists. by means of their fancy uniforms and their fancy firearms.

But the Colonists were feeling a new wind of Liberty; so they took unto themselves firearms, by which they would empower themselves to assert their fledgeling freedom and run the King’s soldiers out of America and back to their little island.

By ’n by, the Americans got it together to write a Constitution by which they would build, from the ground up, a new Republic, if they could keep. 

And they did keep it for a long time. . . just how long, remains to be seen.

But we digress.

Within the structured Law of that Constitution, the Americans had written unto themselves an Amendment, the Second, to whit: 

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.

This official protection of the Right to bear arms was very effective for the Americans as they expanded their new Republic all the way across our Continent, imposing, by the force of their Guns, their high-tech industrialized hegemony over all North American natives.

And a bloody time was had by all. As time went by they made forceful use of the Firearms to subdue the native peoples and appropriate unto themselves the vast lands of the North American Continent.

       Song: Sitting Bull’s Eyes 

By ’n by, the Americans had a bloody friggin Civil War in which they killed many many thousands of themselves.

As the 20th century got cranked up, the Americans did provide massive firepower to drive the German kaiser and his soldiers back into their prussian holes.

And a few years later, the Americans did again provide massive firepower to drive the little nazi and his nazi demons back into their holes. 

By n by, the Americans did, over the course of the 20th-century manage to, sometimes make good use of their guns to settle wars that had sprung above around the world.

In some of those ventures, the Americans did ok; in others . . . not so much. 

By the time the 21st century rolled in, Americans had morphed into a very different breed from the original Patriot role model that had inspired their original impetus toward Freedom, Liberty and Justice for all, especially since our visual obsession has turned us into couch potatoes  with eyes obsessed in electronic screens that are robbing many of us of any capacity to actually think and act with responsibility, compassion, good ole common sense and liberty and justice for All.

The “Justice” for all category is one, particularly, in which we Americans have failed to maintain high standards of appropriate, consistent, lawful enforcement among our varying communities and neighborhoods.  

Sad to say, this 2nd Amendment that now enables the fascists and the  murderously compelled whackos among us to go around killing people as if they were shooting dildos at an amusement park . . . Austin, Columbine, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Charleston church, Colleyville synagogue, Parkland Florida, Sacramento, NYC Subway, Uvalde, Tulsa, Philadelphia,  Highland Park . . . to name just a few,

and then there are the assassinations: Medgar Evers, President Kennedy, Dr. MLKing, Senator Bobby Kennedy, the attempt on President Reagan  and Gabby Giffords. . .

Times have changed; the world has changed; people have changed. We have lost the ability to govern ourselves. We have sacrificed our Peace and Safety on the altar of Second Amendment fantasy. 

Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of our country. Take guns away from crazy people! It's time we took that "well-regulated" phrase seriously.

We need a Constitutional Amendment to impose appropriate limitations on Americans and our Right to Bear Arms.

And while we are at it, we need a Constitutional Amendment to delete the Electoral College from our Constitution and replace it with the Right of every citizen to vote for the President of the United States. That damned E.C. construct came about only because our Founders were not yet confident enough--not yet smart enough-- to forbid slavery, and not yet American enough to constitutionalize a government that is actually established by  the Voting of  We the People.

Glass half-Full