There are three things that are all but certain to happen in every household on every Thanksgiving in America. The Cowboys giving someone heartburn, someone being in the kitchen who shouldn’t be there and last minute runs to pick up something that was somehow was forgotten for dinner. However, apparently that last item is no longer the simple dash and grab it use to be. Because now we have to go to the store knowing that at any minute some maniac can take a deadly weapon and brutally murder a mass of people at the whim of very pervasive firearm laws. Shopping centers have joined neighborhood streets, homes, churches, schools and nightclubs as the the new battleground in a war innocent lives never consented to. Whether it’s a tormented soul exacting perceived vengeance at his job, an abuser bringing a vicious end to the lives of those he was promised to love, or having the audacity to even go to school, nearly 50,000 lives have been taken by a gun in America. Thousands more irrevocably damaged live on as survivors. The over accessibility and abundance of firearms has secured this nation a pitiful distinction that no other developed nation has. And the only reason why we have been brought to this destination is due to the 2nd Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The 2nd Amendment to the United States Constitution was nearly 250 years ago and it was written with a VERY specific reason in mind. James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton made these reasons abundantly clear. We had just terminated the rule of King George, a tyrant empowered by a standing army. He used a well-trained and well-armed force against his own people with extreme prejudice and without the consent of those it was there to protect. And with the British rule extinguished, those men devised two constructs to prevent that from ever happening to the new Republic being established. The first way was to have a democratic rule and to give the means to the people to change that rule. The second way was to remove the power to oppress a nation from that rule. The 2nd Amendment was written, to remove the power from a standing army and to give it to the people, the same people that were already given democratic rule.

So it was written, “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.” During the Revolutionary War, the colonial militia was the citizen force that were called when needed. They were untrained, undisciplined and notoriously unreliable, especially when matched against the well trained and disciplined British Army. This is precisely why they wanted our militia to be a well regulated militia. Because it was necessary for the security of a free State. Even the wording here was not imprecise. State was capitalized because it referenced the entity as one “State” of the “United States”. Madison’s intent with the Amendment was to give each State the ability to protect itself. Again, they wrote a constitution to protect the State. And included the 1st Amendment to address and challenge the State. We DID NOT need arms to do that. They knew full well that just having arms was absolutely inefficient. To be clear, if you THINK the 2nd Amendment was written to protect the country, you can NOT look at what has been happening and think it is doing that at all.

Gun violence is a virus we’ve refused inoculation from. The reasons for this are pathetically misallocated as a threat against liberty. We do not safeguard our society because of the perception that our democracy will lose its ultimate safeguard. However, the trick is that actual safeguard IS the democracy itself. The only thing it leaves in its wake is death and thousands of shattered lives. But it is a protected right. And so, since it is a protected right, advocates will use all legal means to make sure that right is maintained, no matter the consequence. And it is that very protection that has allowed for an unfettered access and use of firearms in our nation’s streets, homes and schools. As long as it is protected, it can be used. And more importantly, as long as it’s protected, it will be abused.

So, I think it’s past time that we no longer protect it.

The 2nd Amendment needs to be fully abolished and it has to be done to protect its citizens. Because it is CERTAINLY not doing that with the way it is currently constructed now. And while it may sound radical that I am advocating the repeal of the Amendment, I am not. There are plenty of nations that still have firearms on the market for civilian use and ownership. If we prefer the right to continue to murder citizens, we can still do that. But we would then be better equipped to stop those that wish to do so than we are now. We cannot continue to use the excuse of “Constitutional Rights” to protect the abused right to murder. The true radicals are the people who can just sit by, watch the news every day, watch every massacre and every memorial and think this is normal.

We have to abolish the 2nd Amendment and it has to be abolished now!