This Supreme Court Did Something Right

 

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart

It is no secret that I have been a frequent critic of the Supreme Court since 2020. I have good reason and a huge responsibility to criticize it for its corruption and political bias.

However, when it does the right thing, I also have a responsibility to praise them for their actions.

Thanks to a poorly written Second Amendment, which is ambiguous and lacks definition, the NRA gun lobby, paid for by gun manufacturers and gun sellers, has used this one amendment to the Bill of Rights for their own benefit. Gun violence began to escalate in America in 1976, the same year the NRA ceased its purpose as a gun safety organization, and aligned itself with the corporate world.

The most recent statistic I found was from 2022. In that one year, 48,117 men, women, and children lost their lives from the use of a gun. Firearm suicide: 26,993 people. Firearm homicide: 19,592 people. Unintentional gun injury: 472 people. Fatal shooting by law enforcement: 649 people.

The statistic most interesting to me is the number of deaths by homicide.

Of the 19,592 killed, most were women and children. In most cases, the perpetrator was someone who had an intimate relationship with his victims.

A GROWING FAILURE FROM THE JUSTICE SYSTEM

Domestic violence remains a “dirty little secret.” Seldom do these mostly men receive fair punishment for their crimes. All too often they repeat their violent actions, but with even more excessive violence until one or more innocent victims lose their lives.

[On average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. During one year, this equates to more than 10 million women and men.]

THE COURT DEFENDS ONE ACT TO LESSEN THE NUMBER OF DEATHS FROM DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

On Friday, the Supreme Court upheld a federal law preventing convicted domestic abusers from possessing firearms by a vote of 8-1. The lone dissent was offered by who else, Clarence Thomas.

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, said the court had “no trouble” coalescing around the idea that an individual who poses a threat can be denied access to weapons.

“Our tradition of firearm regulation allows the government to disarm individuals who present a credible threat to the physical safety of others,” Roberts wrote.

Clarence Thomas offered his biased opinion as a lifetime supporter of the NRA, not considering the safety of the American people.

“The court and government do not point to a single historical law revoking a citizen’s Second Amendment right based on possible interpersonal violence,” Thomas wrote. “Yet, in the interest of ensuring the Government can regulate one subset of society, today’s decision puts at risk the Second Amendment rights of many more.”

NO ONE CAN SHOW ME WHERE THE SECOND AMENDMENT DENIES THE PROTECTION OF PUBLIC SAFETY FOR THE GREATER GOOD

Read the Second Amendment and decide for yourself if it clearly defines who can possess today’s weapons of mass destruction.

“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.”

Let’s take a closer look.

When the Second Amendment was approved by the Constitutional Congress, the New Nation did not have a standing army. The wording of the amendment reflects that fact.

Nowhere does it allow unrestricted possession of weapons designed for the sole purpose of killing other human beings. Handguns and military assault rifles have no other purpose.

Does anyone believe that if our Founding Fathers could have seen into the future and witnessed the destruction one assault rifle, equipped with a high-output magazine and a bump stock could inflict upon a group of innocent people, that they would have written such an ambiguous law?

There are reasons why in most states carrying a concealed weapon without a permit is forbidden. There are reasons why only the military and law enforcement are allowed to possess firearms in many countries. There is a valid reason why the United States has become the most dangerous nation in the world. With the ability for anyone to purchase a gun at any time in some manner, there are more mass shootings than days on the calendar each year.

Recently the corrupted Supreme Court struck down a law preventing the sale of bump stocks, which convert semiautomatic weapons into machine guns. Bump Stocks were the reason why on October 1, 2017 a lone gunman was able to kill 58 people and injure more than 400 at a concert in Las Vegas.

However, this little step is encouraging. Domestic violence has not been addressed with a level of importance in my lifetime. My father constantly beat my mother. He chased me because I defended her, but he couldn’t catch me. I was young and hid under cars and in places he could not get to me.

I kept dimes in my pocket to call the cops. When they came, they did nothing.

The majority of men and some women who commit domestic violence not only repeat their crimes, they do so with an increasing level of violence.

Taking guns away from them is a beginning, but much more must be done. Americans who sell marijuana in states where it remains illegal, are prosecuted to a greater degree than those who commit domestic violence.

I remain doubtful that this Court will do the right thing most of the time. However, I do praise the eight justices who acted to protect the safety of women and children: everyone except Clarence Thomas.

Op-ed by James Turnage

My novels are available on Amazon

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/21/politics/supreme-court-guns-rahimi/index.html