Commentary: Yesterday’s actions in the US Senate are just shameful…. Those killed by guns since 1968 - some 1,500,000 - are more than all those in US wars since our Revolution (NYTimes). June’s Orlando murders meld various thoughts: Freely available assault-style and other military weapons; homophobia, islamophobia, general hatred and lying by the gun industry.
We ignore that America has had varying forms of gun control since the 1600s - a complex history. The 1870’s pointed out our current legal dilemma - “How do we balance the right of individual self-defense against the danger an armed population poses to public safety...when most Americans do not live in rural communities..." (Central Law Journal). Contrary to popular belief the strongest gun control laws in the last decades of the 19th century were in our frontier towns, e.g. Tombstone, Dodge City and Deadwood. You checked your guns at the sheriff’s office and you got them back when leaving town (multiple sources).
Let’s shut loopholes in existing US gun laws, e.g, keeping those on the terrorist watch list, mentally ill and/or violet ex-felons from getting guns. Respecting privacy while protecting the public must be society’s aim. As the honorable Judge Scalia said “…like most rights, the right secured by the second amendment is not unlimited" (Heller vs. DC 2008). We need to talk to each other for the good of America. Congress can't ban assault rifles and related weaponry and offer a bounty to turn them in? “Imagine…” (Lennon). American's believe the second amendment doesn’t provide the right to freely acquire assault weapons, among others. (Pew Research 2013).
“There is a disposition to do away with the carrying of firearms ... The carrying of firearms is a barbarous custom, and it’s time the practice was broken up.” (Dodge City Times, 1882)