I am not normally one who would espouse the cause of Jesse Jackson because too often I feel like he is more concerned with publicity than any cause or issue about which he might be speaking. I, like many people from the Washington DC area, watched Sean Taylor's funeral on television. The death of anyone whether it is a senseless drive by shooting, a victim in an unjustified and unprovoked war, or innocence being destroyed before it had the opportunity to see the horizon of the potential that life had to offer is almost impossible to comprehend or much less understand. When I heard Jesse Jackson speak in praise as well as the tragedy of Sean Taylor's life, I had a personal epiphany of sorts about how we have allowed violence to consume our social, ethical, or religious consciousness concerning the value of life. Read part of what Reverend Jackson had to say:
“The loss of a life is unimaginably greater than the loss of a game or a season. But the lesson is the same. We should not give up simply because of this terrible loss. We should learn from it, and rededicate ourselves from it.
What should we learn? In a modern society, overrun by guns and drugs, none of us are safe. The young and the strong are at risk, no less than the old and the weak. The wealthy cannot build walls high enough to create true islands in a sea of turmoil. There is no fireproof room in a house that is burning.
We should learn once more that America's house is on fire. Some ask why didn't Sean have a gun to protect his family. But more guns and more fire won't make us safe. We already have more guns than any other industrialized nation -- and more gun crime as well. The gun peddlers are selling a false security.
Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sean Taylor . . . the tragedies keep coming. We are slow learners. Now it is legal to own and sell semiautomatic weapons. In an age of terror, restrictions on guns are being rolled back, not increased. Police fear that they are outgunned on the streets. Pilots fear that a lone terrorist armed with a weapon bought at a gun show without a background check could take out a plane taking off or landing. The administration has trampled the Constitution when it comes to privacy and wiretaps and probable cause. But President Bush and the judges he has appointed have rolled back sensible regulation of guns.
Sean Taylor was a defensive player with an offensive flair. He intercepted passes, created fumbles, returned kicks. He knew that any good game plan requires both offense and defense. Surely, his death tells us we need a new game plan when it comes to guns and drugs. We need a smarter offense in the schools and on the streets.
Sean Taylor died alone with his family, but we must do this together. We need to rededicate ourselves to making America better, to getting guns and drugs off our streets, to getting crime under control.”
What should we learn? In a modern society, overrun by guns and drugs, none of us are safe. The young and the strong are at risk, no less than the old and the weak. The wealthy cannot build walls high enough to create true islands in a sea of turmoil. There is no fireproof room in a house that is burning.
We should learn once more that America's house is on fire. Some ask why didn't Sean have a gun to protect his family. But more guns and more fire won't make us safe. We already have more guns than any other industrialized nation -- and more gun crime as well. The gun peddlers are selling a false security.
Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sean Taylor . . . the tragedies keep coming. We are slow learners. Now it is legal to own and sell semiautomatic weapons. In an age of terror, restrictions on guns are being rolled back, not increased. Police fear that they are outgunned on the streets. Pilots fear that a lone terrorist armed with a weapon bought at a gun show without a background check could take out a plane taking off or landing. The administration has trampled the Constitution when it comes to privacy and wiretaps and probable cause. But President Bush and the judges he has appointed have rolled back sensible regulation of guns.
Sean Taylor was a defensive player with an offensive flair. He intercepted passes, created fumbles, returned kicks. He knew that any good game plan requires both offense and defense. Surely, his death tells us we need a new game plan when it comes to guns and drugs. We need a smarter offense in the schools and on the streets.
Sean Taylor died alone with his family, but we must do this together. We need to rededicate ourselves to making America better, to getting guns and drugs off our streets, to getting crime under control.”
Sean Taylor didn't have a gun because he was on probation from an earlier incident and it was illegal for him to have a gun in his possession, but let us also remember that it was illegal for his murderer to have a gun too. I am aware that a discussion like this always ends up in a debate over the Second Amendment. To the NRA and all gun advocates in America all I can say is that I respectively disagree with how you and the courts have interpreted the Second Amendment.
"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."
I personally believe that this amendment states that people as a part of a well regulated militia shall not have its right to bear arms infringed upon.
I found this piece of historical trivia on the National Guard's Official Web page about its origin and history.
"The National Guard, the oldest component of the Armed Forces of the United States and one of the nation's longest enduring institutions, celebrated its 366th birthday in 2002. The National Guard traces its history back to the earliest English colonies in North America. Responsible for their own defense, the colonists drew on English military tradition and organized their able-bodied male citizens into militias."
I am not calling for a complete ban on gun ownership but reasonable regulation and licensing of guns. If it is reasonable for the state to license a driver of an automobile to ensure he or she is competant to drive, why shouldn't it do the same for gun owners? If it is reasonable for the state to require a car owner to hold title to his or her vehicle, why shouldn't it have the same requirement for gun ownership? I am not opposed to gun ownership but within reasonable constraints of the law for public safety. There will always be the exception and it would almost be impossible to do a psychological profile on everyone who buys a gun, but with reasonable regulation we can minimize the danger of gun violence to the public.
Senex Magister
It is past time to bring this war to an end and live as brothers in a world based on fairness for all of us.
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