Last week there was another senseless shooting death in Lompoc, and over the last couple of weeks there have been scores of murders, all caused by irresponsible people using guns all over the country. Eventually the Lompoc suspect was found dead of a gunshot wound in another county.
The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution says, “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.” It is the phrase “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed” that is currently being debated.
I think we can all agree that when this amendment was written, the authors could not have conceived of how this would be interpreted 200 years later by gun rights activists, politicians, courts, or folks opposed to gun ownership. At the time they were more concerned with protecting the nation they were forming and their families from marauders.
Some are advocating an amendment to the Constitution to eliminate or modify the Second Amendment; to do this, 35 of the states must ratify or agree to the change. That is a steep hill to climb considering that carrying firearms is needed in many places where very large wild animals are a hazard to humans and a large-caliber firearm is a must.
As a matter of full disclosure, I am a gun owner; they were purchased following a background check, I was originally trained in gun safety in the military and later went to a Sheriff’s Department operated firing range for a firearm safety course. My guns are secured in my home, and although I had a concealed carry permit, I haven’t carried a gun on my person in many years.
The National Rifle Association is a strong advocate of the right to bear arms; it is also a very strong advocate for firearm safety and provides regularly supervised classroom and practical gun safety instruction. It is doubtful that most of the people who use guns to kill people have ever taken a firearm safety course and most have acquired their guns without the benefit of a background check.
Many states, including California, have very strong gun laws; most political jurisdictions in our state have laws restricting the carrying and use of firearms. First, you must pass a background check, then wait while your information is vetted. If you pass this hurdle, you can purchase a firearm; if not, then you can’t legally possess one.
This is where the political establishment begins to fail. In today’s permissive world, local politicians have hampered the ability of police officers to seek out unregistered, illegal firearms, and often district attorneys refuse to punish offenders even when they have an extensive list of convictions. These illegal guns account for a large majority of gun related injuries and deaths.
I have written of the “broken window theory” in the past; in law enforcement this means that if you let minor crimes such as shoplifting, car theft, or vagrancy go unchecked, there will be a subsequent increase in other more serious crimes. Many in our society have no idea what gun laws are and frankly don’t care. “Catch me if you can” seems to be their strategy, and even if they are caught, they will receive no meaningful punishment.
Guns aren’t the only thing used to commit murders; others are cause by people using knives, hatchets, screwdrivers, hammers, signposts, bricks, and other objects without the need for a permit, background check, or a safety course.
Many people advocate a “hardening” of so called “soft targets” like schools, theaters, churches, public events like parades and fairs, and retail establishments. Do we really want to resort to a semi-military state instead of enforcing existing gun laws?
Or do we want to tell our politicians that before they add more restrictions to the use of legal weapons, perhaps they should support strong law enforcement efforts to use current laws and focus on taking illegal weapons and the criminals using them off the streets.
Let’s try that before we add more meaningless laws that the average criminal won’t be paying attention to anyway. Maybe that will reduce the number of killings in places like Lompoc, Santa Maria, and elsewhere around the country.
Ron Fink writes to the Sun from Lompoc. Send a letter for publication to letters@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 16-23, 2022.