The Second Amendment - A Biography

Widely acclaimed at the time of its publication in 2014, this book explores the most misunderstood provision of the Bill of Rights. In today's era of ever-increasing, and ever-more-horrific, gun violence, Waldman’s book helps demystify the Amendment.

The Second Amendment (thank you, James Madison, for insisting on a Bill of Rights) was written to calm public fear that the new national government would crush militias, at that time the only mechanism for self-defense of the nascent United States. Such groups were made up only of white adult men, who were required to own a gun in order to become part of a militia; ownership of firearms had been forbidden under the British crown.

Waldman recounts the stormy debate that has surrounded the amendment from its birth to the present. As the country spread West, violence spread too. But through it all, gun control, rather than being timid, was abundant. In the twentieth century, with Prohibition and gangsterism, the first federal gun control laws were passed; the Supreme Court ruled against a constitutional right to own a gun – any kind of gun – four times.

The present debate, one theme of which seems to be everybody has a right to own and carry, openly or otherwise, any kind of weapon took shape in the 1970s. Because of a resurgence of libertarianism, the newly radicalized National Rifle Association (NRA) campaigned to oppose gun control. The NRA sought to emphasize an obscure constitutional provision that in 2008 reached the Supreme Court, after a push by conservative lawyers. It was only then the Court ruled that the Constitution protects an individual right to gun ownership. Ironically but not surprisingly, given his role as the avatar of conservative activism on SCOTUS, Antonin Scalia twisted one of his own principles to force the outcome he was after. The precept he used is called originalism, Set aside Scalia's reputation for intellectual excellence; his theory simply doesn't hold water. To accept originalism as a valid premise requires that we believe that neither language nor people evolve. Thomas Jefferson knew that to be specious. In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson intentionally used the phrase in the course of human events to indicate that change must always be factored into whatever one sought to do. Too bad Scalia didn't get the memo.

Michael Waldman shows that our view of the Second Amendment is set, at each stage, not by a literal interpretation of constitutional text, but rather by political advocacy and public agitation. How then can we account for any link between voting and the accelerating rate of gun violence in our country? That's a no-brainer, and a two-word answer – Donald Trump. Mr. Trump is a number of things, none of them admirable. What he excels at is being a con artist. That is, he attempts to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Con artists exploit victims by using their credulity, naïveté, vanity, or greed. Researchers define the underlying psychology as a manifestation of fraudulent conduct intended to further exchanges that benefit con men at the expense of their victims.

That's the connection with voting. Enough of our fellow Americans were duped by Mr. Trump that they voted for him. They took him at his delusional, duplicitous word. They believed him when he said things like Mexico sends us murders and rapists. After their first debate in 2016, Hillary Clinton noted Trump is a drama queen constantly describing a dystopia that exists only in his mind. But that dystopia was his tool for playing on folks' fears. As was the case with Trump University and others of his flimflams, and despite being caught several times with his hand in the cookie jar up to the wrist, Trump got what he wanted. Enough of the public voted for him that:

• he won the Presidency without earning a majority in the popular vote

• he capitalized on that victory by nominating three extraordinarily conservative judges to the Supreme Court

• he was aided and abetted by Mitch McConnell's obsession with controlling our judicial system

• he was further aided and abetted by the lies all three nominees told during their confirmation hearings in the Senate

That's why we're where we are today. We've lost:

• protection for abortion rights

• protection for environmental regulations

• protection for the right of privacy

• protection from the idea that the Second Amendment allows any kind of firearm in anyone's hands under any circumstances

• hundreds of our fellow citizens in the 309 mass shootings so far in 2022 in America

Lest you think that voting has no influence, think again. Attorney General Merrick Garland has, for the third time, challenged a state’s (Arizona's) voting law, in part in response to voting rights groups who have pressed for stronger action against limiting access to the ballot. Arizona’s law requires voters to prove their citizenship to vote in a presidential election by showing a birth certificate or passport. It also mandates that newly registered voters provide a proof of address, which could disproportionately affect people with limited access to government-issued identification cards – folks like recent immigrants, students, older people, low-income voters, and Native Americans.

Here in Pennsylvania, where the Republican party controls the legislature, there are over 200 seats in the State House. Thirty-six of those are open in 2022. Were Democrats to add even 14 of the open seats to their tally, they'd gain not only bragging rights, but the majority in the House (currently at 113 Republicans and 90 Democrats), and therefore:

• the ability to draw or re-draw the maps of electoral districts

• the ability to expand services such as SNAP and Medicaid

• the ability to affect opportunities such as those involving higher education

In a nutshell, vote. Vote like your future depended on it, because it very well might. And let's put into office in the PA State House folks who do something to earn:

Salary	Per diem
$90,335/year	$178/day

The Ballotpedia site is a treasure-trove of information about voting, and about the PA State legislature. Bookmark it. Do the same for this one as well; it's a guide to election rules and practices in Pennsylvania.