Op-Ed: Your right to bear arms is someone
else’s right to murder
By Savannah Mather, contributing writer
I was 12-years-old the first time I grieved with my hometown of Newtown, Connecticut when a man with an AR-15 killed 20 children and six faculty members in the elementary school down the road. I was 17-years-old when I marched the streets of Washington D.C. alongside my community and survivors from Parkland, Florida to fight for legislative action for gun control. Now as a 21-year-old, I grieve with my community and peers in Boulder, many of whom consider Boulder a second home. Yet again, another shooter with an AR-15 killed 10 people. This time, the shooting was at a King Soopers grocery store. I would be lying if I told you I was surprised when I first heard the news. The unfortunate reality is that we are so accustomed to mass shootings in the United States of America and some of us get to feel the effects of this reality more than once.
This nation has a gun problem; we already know that. In 2020 alone, there were 611 mass shootings in the United States. Since the start of 2021, there have already been 142 mass shootings, two of which, both in Boulder and Atlanta, made headlines within seven days of each other. Though some citizens and election officials say gun control is a unique cultural issue, it’s not. It’s a partisan one. The only effective solution left is to repeal the Second Amendment and reconstruct it so that its original intent is put back in place, rather than allowing gun lobbyists and conservative judges to determine the ugly gun-stricken reality that is the United States of America.
Those who choose the right to bear arms over the right for someone to live without fear of going to a grocery store or to school, play just as much of a role in the nation’s gun problem as the politicians do. Let me clarify, however, that I understand there are law-abiding, good people who own firearms for their own protection, or for hunting. The discussions I’ve had with friends who own handguns for protection are always quick to criticize those who use them to hurt others. But when I ask them what they can do as a responsible gun owner to support gun control, they often fall silent. Perhaps worried that more gun control is a restriction on their own right to bear arms, I’ve noticed that even those closest to me who know much gun violence affected my life will not speak up against the politicians and the laws that allow it to happen.
In addressing the issue of gun control and the widespread access to firearms, it is important to reflect on what the Second Amendment constitutionally states, which is not an individual’s right to bear arms, but rather a state militia’s right, meaning a group of armed citizens who wish to overthrow an oppressive government. The rise of the conservative movement in the 70s and 80s gave way to a reinterpretation of the Second Amendment, along with the overwhelming support from the National Rifle Association (NRA), that not just state militia could use guns to overthrow an unjust government, but individuals could use them to. But it would be impossible for an individual to take on the entire government, so the argument evolved to believe that more guns equal more individual protections. Yet, a study from the FBI that examined 160 active shooter events from 2000 to 2013, found that only five of those that were mass shootings were prevented by an armed civilian. Of the active shootings incidents in both 2018 and 2019, only one shooter was stopped by an armed civilian.
Here in Colorado, 34.30% of the population are gun owners. Of those gun owners, it is safe to assume that some of them are a part of the growing 1.1 million hunters and anglers in the state. However, it is also safe to assume that some of those gun owners also possess assault rifles, considering the state of Colorado is yet to implement a ban on them. Assault rifles are weapons of mass destruction. They are militarized guns, made for killing a large amount of people in a short period of time. Hunters certainly do not need a weapon of that capacity, and neither does a citizen looking to protect themself. The Second Amendment was written at a time when it took up to 30 seconds or more to reload a rifle before every shot. Today, an AR-15 assault rifle can shoot up to 180 rounds per minute. Certainly not every gun owner is looking for a weapon of that capacity, however it is foolish to believe that the Founding Fathers of this nation wrote the Second Amendment only for it to become the country with the second highest number of gun deaths in the entire world.
The data from the FBI reports shows that the majority of mass shootings in the U.S. were not prevented by another armed civilian. Some may argue that if more civilians at the scene did have a gun, then perhaps there would have been more of a chance of stopping the gunman, however research still states that the presence of more guns does not decrease the U.S. crime rate, but it does make them more violent, according to David Hemenway, a professor at Harvard and expert on the public health impact of gun violence.
To argue that gun violence in America is a cultural, or a human issue, deters from the fact that it is absolutely a partisan one, specifically a conservative one. This kind of rhetoric is just an excuse to try and justify why the U.S. ranks #1 with the overall most mass shootings than any other country in the world.
Conversations around gun control must be “approached with caution” because it is such a sensitive topic for those who would rather die for their right to bear arms than save the lives of those it costs. The conservative interpretation of the Second Amendment is the reason why I panic every time I hear a firework go off in the distance. It is the reason why I figure out the closest exits in my lecture halls at school when I’m in class. It is also the reason why I will turn around and walk out of a store or the gym if I see someone carrying an unusually large duffel bag or backpack. Returning to the Second Amendment’s original interpretation, allowing the right to bear arms while serving in a militia, would undoubtedly mitigate gun violence in the United States. It is fair that most gun owners would probably disagree with that statement, but it is not fair to the 38,826 people who die every year from a gun because of it.
