Why I LOVE The 2nd Amendment (They’re Coming to Kill Us)

Truth be told, I’m really a 3rd Amendment guy.
If you can’t remember it exactly, it goes like this:

No solider 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 war.

Yeah, it’s a little confusing, and those misplaced commas kinda throw you off, but basically it says the government can’t force you to have a soldier live in your home.

To which I say: Hell, yeah!
Not in my home…
Have you seen the way those guys go through Bud Light?

But that 2nd Amendment…. I can really get behind that one.

A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Again, those unnecessary, misleading commas. (Sorry – I’m a grammar snob.)
And what’s with the Founding Fathers and their capitalization of random words?
It’s like Donald Trump’s Tweets, for God’s sake.

But my favorite part?
Right there in the opening words:

A well-regulated militia…

I am a fan of irony.
And the funniest part for me is: The folks who profess their love for the 2nd Amendment, tears welling up in their eyes, don’t even know what it says.

A few years back, I had a young man working for me.
A nice guy, a real craftsman, but he had some funny ideas in his head.
He loved his guns, loved his weed, loved his Bible, loved his 2nd Amendment.

So I asked him, “What militia are you in?”
He looked at me like a dog looks at an odd noise. “None, I guess.”
I pointed out that his beloved 2nd Amendment required that as a prerequisite for gun ownership.

He stared at the ground, and shuffled his feet, and tried to think.
“The militia of my family, I suppose,” he said.
Hunh.

Now, before all you 2nd Amendment fanatics run off to organize your militias with your crazy Uncle Kevin, check that Amendment again…
That phrase “well-regulated” means something.
And I’ve been in your homes, I’ve seen how you live…. Y’all can’t even conduct a well-regulated bedtime for your kids!

Yeah, I know that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia pretty much thumbed his nose at the militia requirement in a pivotal 2008 decision.
He was the deciding vote in the 5-4 court case of District of Columbia vs. Heller.
Scalia wrote, “The 2nd Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that firearm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.”

And that changed everything.
How about that? I’m more of a Constitutionalist than stringent ol’ Antonin Scalia.

Whatever serves your purpose, I guess.

*          *          *

It was about a year ago, the first time I realized:
They’re coming for us.

On July 12, 2021, Tennessee fired their top vaccine specialist, Michelle Fiscus.
Dr. Fiscus was the medical director for vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization programs at the Tennessee Department of Health.
Her offense? Distributing information on the Covid-19 vaccine to doctors and to schools.
Educating teenagers, their parents, and their doctors on the vaccine.
So they could make the decision on their own.

But firing Dr. Fiscus wasn’t enough.
The Department of Health shut down Tennessee’s entire vaccination education effort.
Info on other vaccinations – smallpox, measles, mumps – was all shut down.
They shut down info on vaccines that have been protecting our children for years.

They really are coming to kill us.

*          *          *

Turns out, it’s not just my imagination.

A study last month in the British Medical Journal shows that people in Republican-voting counties of the US had higher death rates over the last 20 years than those in Democratic-voting counties.

Possible reasons cited: Heart disease, cancer, lung disease, unintentional injuries, drug overdoses, suicide.
It would stand to reason that Covid deaths are higher in those Covid-denying regions, too.
Not mention gun deaths.

And now, with their hand-picked Supreme Court, they’re forcing their Red State ways on the rest of the country.

Two weeks after the unspeakable massacre at a Uvalde, Texas school, what was the Supreme Court’s response?
Strike down a New York state law that restricted concealed firearms.

They are coming to kill us.

Explain this to me, all you staunch defenders of “states’ rights”:
Why are states allowed to make their own laws concerning abortion – but they aren’t allowed to make their own gun laws?

Again – I guess it’s whatever serves your purpose.

*          *          *

Let’s get this straight right now. Overturning Roe vs Wade has never been about “saving babies”.
Any more than fighting gun laws has ever been about “states’ rights”.
Just like the first Civil War was never about “states’ rights”.

Here’s something that “pro-life” zealots like to ignore:
Abortion is a medical procedure, in many cases.

If a woman has an ectopic pregnancy (where an inseminated egg gets caught in the fallopian tubes), the life-saving solution is an abortion.
If a woman has a septic uterus, the life-saving solution is an abortion.
If a woman has a interrupted miscarriage, and the fetus (no longer viable) remains inside her, the life-saving solution is an abortion.

All those procedures are now illegal in states that outlaw abortion.
Women will die because doctors are now afraid to perform these procedures. (Regardless of how many “thoughts and prayers” they receive.)

They are coming to kill us.

If you’re so concerned about unwanted pregnancies (and who isn’t?) why go after IUDs, or Plan B pills, or sex education, or even condoms?

If you really want to prevent unwanted pregnancies, here’s a solution: How about we give every male a vasectomy at the age of 12?
When they’re emotionally mature enough and financially secure enough, they can get it reversed – if they have a signed statement from a woman stating that they want to have a child with this man.

What? You have a problem with that?
Why? Because the government shouldn’t be interfering with our bodies?

Oh… Ok… Got it.

*          *          *

Here’s the thing: It’s about to get even scarier.

As horrifying as the Trump Court has been, they’re saving their cruelest blow for last.

The darkest storm cloud on the horizon is Moore vs Harper, a North Carolina case about electoral votes, and who has the final say.
You’ll be hearing a lot about this, before the Court takes it up in October.

 “This case is perhaps the gravest threat to American democracy since the January 6 attack,” Ian Millhiser writes in Vox.com.

In a nutshell, the Supreme Court could give state legislatures the power to regulate federal elections, and eliminate state courts’ say in them.
Imagine the fate of elections in Republican-held state legislatures.
January 6^th would be a nightmare come true.

What the MAGA Republicans did to women’s rights and gun safety – they’re about to do to our democracy.
They’re already stacking positions of electors and vote-counters, across the country.
Just like they stacked the Supreme Court.

*          *          *

Our trembling little democracy has been heading down the road towards a second Civil War for a while now.

That’s not just me, or some conspiracy theorists.
Check out Barbara Walter’s brilliant study, How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them.

The war has already started, in subtle ways.

• Some corporations have publicly stated they will pay for employees’ abortions, including travel out of state.
  In response, Texas’s Attorney General has threatened to fine companies $100,000 if they do that.
• States have threatened to sue doctors who perform abortions in other states; governors in those outlying states have responded by ordering legal protection for their doctors.
• Attorneys are banding together to form defense councils for women charged with abortion crimes. As Nancy Gertner, a Massachusetts judge and attorney on the front lines has said, “We will clog the courts with representation if they go after these women.”
• Law enforcement agencies are trying to get private info from Google (pregnancy info, search data); Google has handed over similar data in the past, but is pushing back now.

Going forward, things will get more violent.

• Right-wing “freedom fighters”, emboldened and given voice by the Supreme Court decisions, will carry guns across state lines.
• Doctors will continue to be attacked (as they have been for years).
• Mass shootings will increase, even more than we’re seeing.

*          *          *

The question becomes, as posed by the wonderful film critic (and occasional social commentator) Ty Burr:
“What are you going to do about it?“

As we’ve pointed out, the other side has cornered the market on guns.
So how do we fight?

We shake things up and cause “good trouble”, as master satirist Jason Selvig did in the above video.
He and his partner-in-crime Davram Stiefler (the “Good Liars” comedy duo), walked right into the lion’s den of the NRA convention in Houston, and openly mocked Wayne LaPierre and his followers right to their face – without them even realizing it.

We march. We protest. We go on strike.
We make everybody see – our elected officials, the corporate world, people in other nations – this isn’t normal. We aren’t going to take this tyranny of the minority anymore.

We give money, if we’re in a position to do that.
To candidates who can get us out of this mess.

Most importantly, we give money to Fair Fight, the organization started by Stacey Abrams.
It’s not hyperbole to say that Ms. Abrams is poised to become the most important public servant of the next 20 years.
Her work, getting people registered and out to vote, is the single biggest factor keeping democracy alive, in a country where more than one-third of the eligible voters did not cast ballots in the latest presidential election.

We volunteer in swing-vote states, which are everywhere you look.
We help get people registered, and get them out to vote.

We vote in local elections – especially in local elections.
State government, local government, is important like never before.
We get to know the people who represent us.
We have to recognize that their actions – and our votes – have an effect.

[One of the smartest things that the right-wing radicals have done is pour money into school board elections.
They have grass-roots, real-life effects on our lives.
In many states, they have made life a living hell for teachers.
We need to focus on that, just as sharply as they have.]

My mantra, from the beginning, has been:
There are a lot of crazy people out there.
But there are more of us than them.

Let them have their guns.
We hold the most powerful, the most legitimate weapon against them.
Our vote.

As i wrote after the 2021 Georgia Senatorial run-off, votes changed the landscape.

*          *          *

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people should do nothing.”

It’s been a misappropriated quote, ever since President John F. Kennedy attributed it to Edmund Burke. (And I updated it so it wasn’t exclusive to “good men”.)
But it doesn’t really matter who said it.

The words have never been more relevant.

Maybe you don’t really like Joe Biden all that much, and you blame him for rising gas prices and for inflation (even though you can’t explain how he impacted the price of gas across Europe)…. Do you really think a President Ron DeSantis would solve things?

Maybe you’re angry that Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren got beaten in the primaries, and they would’ve cancelled your student debt, or nationalized health care… How’s President Josh Hawley sound?

Maybe you’re on the fence, and you’re not really sure who has the better ideas… Watch the video of the attack on the Capitol, and remind yourself who was behind this, and how it could happen again.

Maybe you’re tired of politics… Believe me, I am, too.
But this isn’t about politics.
This is about survival.

Maybe you’re a supporter of Trump and his disciples…. Well, I don’t know that there’s much I could say to sway your opinion, is there?

But then, your vote doesn’t count anyways, does it?

I mean, with all the Dominion machines and Italian satellites stealing your vote and everything… Right?