This has got to stop. America is the only country in the world where an adult can buy a gun, their kid can use it to kill their classmates and we do nothing more than recycle intellectually inane conversations about our Constitution and our exceptionalism. washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11…
To be clear, every country has challenges with mental health. Every country has teenagers struggling to transition to adulthood. But the US is the only one with such easy access to deadly weapons one can access when faced with those stresses.
The US has more guns than people. If we got rid of half of them, we would still have more guns per capita than any other country on the planet. We don't have to live like this.
Why do we? In no small part because of the complete disaster that is our campaign finance system. Look at this analysis from @leadershipnp of spending in the 2016 election. They have bought the right to kill you. 
And spare me your 'oh but it's in the Constitution' nonsense unless you are prepared to grapple with those first 12 words of 2A. "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state". Don't tell me our founders meant that to allow us to shoot kids at school.
If you wonder what our founders meant, look no further than where they mentioned militias in the body of the Constitution, before they got to the amendments:
Clause 15: The Congress shall have power to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions.
Clause 16: The Congress shall have power to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the appointment of the officers, and...
... the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.
We don't have to wonder what they meant by a militia in 2A because they told us. And that ain't the world that the gun sales lobby has created through their fabricated interpretations. Again, we don't have to live like this.
Oh and by the way, if you're wondering what our founders meant by "suppress insurrections", ask yourself who they were most afraid of taking up arms in the 1700s. You can't escape the racial elements of this history. Read Carol Anderson. publicintegrity.org/inequality-pov…
Or read Justice Stevens on why our founders initially considered including a religious exemption in the "right to bear arms" (because that meant being compelled by your government.) theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
That's a summary of his views, but read his whole dissent. It is masterful and tragically was a minority opinion. supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/…
Anyway. We have CHOSEN to let people keep shooting each other. We have CHOSEN to prioritize the interests of gun sales over our right to pursue happiness.
We didn't have to make that choice. And we can still change. I just wish a majority of my colleagues were willing to. /fin
We didn't have to make that choice. And we can still change. I just wish a majority of my colleagues were willing to. /fin
Postscript: Read James Baldwin, from 1963. America has always been depressingly tolerant of killing kids at school. It's past time for us to acknowledge that history and finally move to perfect our union. zinnedproject.org/materials/bald…
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