The U.S. air force is unconstitutional because the Constitution gives Congress the power to raise an army and a navy. Thus, Congress has no power to raise an air force. That’s a joke, of course, but it demonstrates that the Constitution is a living document, not something etched in stone in 1776. But when airplanes were new, someone actually worried about the Constitution and that’s why the air force began as the army air corps.
Just as airplanes were unknown to the founding fathers, militias are unknown today. With the creation by Congress of a standing army and a standing navy, the need to maintain a well-armed citizenry so that a well-regulated militia could be formed quickly if needed simply disappeared. The second amendment is just an anachronism, like the human appendix. See this article for a more detailed look at what a militia was back when the second amendment was written.
Human slavery was enshrined in the Constitution and it took a war and an amendment to remove that practice from the list of behaviors considered to be OK. The enshrinement of weapons in the Constitution is almost as embarrassing as was the legalization of slavery. A gun is a manifestation of ill will. In the future, the making of a weapon will be considered a crime against humanity because the maker of a weapon is withdrawing from the human family. As Zen Master Thich Nhat Hahn says in Present Moment, Wonderful Moment, inter-being is. Everyone is a part of everyone else, whether you believe it or not.
Gun owners have withdrawn from the human family. They say is it OK for them to own weapons because they are not mentally ill. But only 5% of murders are committed by the mentally ill; the other 95% of murders, which the gun-promoters choose to ignore, are committed by people who are law-abiding citizens until they aren’t.
So the current right-wing campaign for more mental health programs is a mere diversion from the truth they are hiding.
An armed citizenry is no longer needed, if it ever was. And the gun owners of today do not belong to a militia, much less a well-regulated one. They promote fewer and fewer regulations, for crying out loud, thereby defeating their own argument; the Constitution calls for a well-regulated militia and they can’t have it both ways.
So gun owners who respect the Constitution must join a well-regulated militia as required by the Second Amendment, or give up their guns. So what if the U.S. Supreme Court erased the first half of the Second Amendment from the Constitution? They are corrupt, contemptible cowards, with the combined courage of a cowering creampuff. Those of ill will who interpret the Constitution by erasing the half of it they don’t like (the half that says guns are OK if owned by members of a well-regulated militia) are not worthy of respect. They see the carnage caused by guns, and they happily support the views of gun owners as if nothing has changed.
The founding fathers fought for their own freedom while denying it to those whom they owned. The king has no clothes. They are the mean-minded morons who promoted a gun culture that even they would find unacceptable if they were alive today.
My Buddhist friends tell me I harbor ill will towards the SCOTUS, gun owners, and the founding fathers who owned human beings. Yes, I do. But I can still act with good will towards them, even if I am repulsed by their nasty belief system.
We have only one way to fight back. We have to have more zendos (meditation halls) in this country than we have gun shops. It has been noted by others that the U.S. has more gun shops than it has post offices. So what do the politicians do? They are closing the post offices, of course.
So we have to open zendos. We have to counteract ill will with good will. We need a meditator for every gun owner. Then we need two meditators for every gun owner and so on until the gun owners are gone, overcome with good will.
They are filled with fear, and we are fearless. It won’t even matter if the second amendment stays on the books; no one will want a weapon when those of good will overcome those of ill will by practicing good will towards them.
The gun owners will slowly realize that there is no one to fear, no one from whom they require protection. Utopian? Not at all. As we form more and more meditation groups, it will happen. It’s happening already.
We Buddhists are reaching out to people of good will of all stripes and belief systems. It’s OK if you believe the earth is carried on the back of a giant turtle; if you are of good will and want to see an end to ill will and the guns produced by such ill will, you will find that all Buddhists are your friends, even if you belong to an evil organization such as the Catholic Church. (My jokes are getting weaker as we go…I’m no Ajahn Brahm. And I greatly admire the Catholic saints).
So let’s be subversives of the mainstream culture by practicing Zen and work quietly under the radar to build more zendos for sitting groups. We will reach a tipping point where gun ownership is understood to be a shameful thing. Just like slavery.
Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness
I like your comparison of guns to slavery and the reminders of the times when the Constitution was written.I recently read the bio of John Adams by David McCullough, which describes that historical event well. I am also happy to read that you see all people as one. I can hardly wait to see your vision come true when gun ownership will be seen as shameful as owning slaves.