The history of the United States has always included a right to accessibility to firearms but also regulations of firearms.
This is evident from the start. The Second Amendment to the Constitution reads: "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."
Whether or not one interprets those words as circumscribing firearms to the activities of militias and the purposes of State defense, there's no denying that firearms are there in the founding document of the republic. Only three nations' constitutions include a right to bear firearms: the United States, Mexico, and Guatemala. And of those three, only the U.S.'s constitution defines the right so broadly.
The American Revolution was a violent one. It wasn't all political theory and document-signings, but firearms and cannons, too. It was a clash of arms, including between opposing Revolutionary and Loyalist colonists—a civil war of sorts—especially in the South, where genuine atrocities were committed by all sides of the conflict: British, Loyalist, and Revolutionary. The revolution's first engagements, the Battles of Lexington and Concord, erupted when the British Crown attempted to seize firearms, as well as other military supplies, but were contested by armed colonial militiamen. In short, firearms from quite early on in America carried symbolic as well as obvious practical significance related to liberty, defense, and the very foundation of the nation.
But they were also required to register them.
One might see that as emblematic of the mutual importance of accessibility and regulation of firearms in America.
The [Second] Amendment was written to calm public fear that the new national government would crush the state militias made up of all (white) adult men—who were required to own a gun to serve. Waldman recounts the raucous public debate that has surrounded the amendment from its inception to the present. As the country spread to the Western frontier, violence spread too. But through it all, gun control was abundant. In the twentieth century, with Prohibition and gangsterism, the first federal control laws were passed.
Even in the days of the Wild West, an era that in the popular imagination is almost synonymous with gunplay, there was regulation. It was common then to require that one's firearms be checked into storage—kept under lock and key—upon one's entry into western towns. In fact, it was defiance of that practice that contributed to the most famous gunfight of the American Old West, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in 1881 in Tombstone, Arizona Territory.
The history of guns and gun control in the U.S. continues with other twists and turns.
For instance, in the article mentioned above, Winkler contends that even more so than the National Rifle Association (NRA), the modern group that first advocated fiercely for the right to bear loaded weapons in public was the Black Panthers. They saw white Americans' support for gun control measures to be based in racist fears of armed black Americans.
While it is true that members of both the political left and right can be disingenuous about (or not well aware of) parts of American gun control history that they might find inconvenient, I want to take issue specifically with two arguments of the political right against restrictions on the right to bear arms.
The first is a slippery-slope argument common with the NRA and similar advocacy organizations.
The NRA has opposed most kinds of gun control since the 1930s, but in recent decades they have opposed virtually any form of gun regulation whatsoever. (For the early history of the NRA's slippery-slope argument, see
Pamela Haag's 2016 article in The Atlantic.)
Slippery-slope arguments are often—but not inherently—fallacious or weak. Links in such arguments' supposed chain of causality are often ridiculously numerous or the causal connections are not direct or strong at all. It puts me in mind of a novelty t-shirt I saw that read, "Do you remember how giving women the vote led to horses getting the vote?"
I admit that my rebuttal to the NRA's slippery-slope argument is in part based on analogy, and logicians often consider arguments by analogy to be weak. But my argument is this:
It's widely accepted that the right to free speech as established in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is sweeping but not absolute. The classic example is that the right to free speech is not unduly curtailed by outlawing the act of needlessly shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater. One's broad right to speak freely does not extent to speech that directly endangers the public's safety.
So, even freedom of speech, one of America's most cherished rights, is somewhat proscribed. Yet it is unreasonable to think that a prohibition against shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater leads to, for instance, the U.S. government shutting down The New York Times and seizing its printers and computer servers or jailing its reporters.
Similarly, I believe many types of firearms regulations are born of concerns for public safety and if enacted will not inexorably lead to a true weakening of the Second Amendment, and certainly not something as extreme as the confiscation of firearms.
In short, the NRA and its allies regularly practice rabid fear-mongering and irrational or disingenuous propaganda—some of it demonizing—to justify their existence. The consequences aren't so much the defense of the Second Amendment, but a quasi-militarization and promotion of paranoia (about the government and the specter of violent criminals) among a sizable minority of its members, and further division among the republic's citizens.
For instance, it cannot be reasonably argued that outlawing bump stocks—a technology that greatly increases the rate of fire of semi-automatic weapons—or requiring background checks of would-be gun purchasers, will lead to U.S. government officials raiding Americans' homes to seize firearms. Yet the NRA makes exactly that kind of argument, sometimes directly and often indirectly. That is, in my opinion, a corrupt and bad-faith argument.The NRA regularly suggests that the confiscation of weapons is the likely ultimate outcome of virtually any firearms regulation, no matter how minor or even sensible. Such a slippery-slop argument does not rest on reason or in an intellectually honest view of U.S. history.
It might also be noted that previous forms of firearms regulations, like the assault weapons ban, never led to anything remotely like the confiscation of firearms. So why would some, most, or even many of gun control measures widely proposed today?
Why does the NRA's logically weak argument work so well?
It is largely a matter of sustained communication and political organization, in my opinion.
For instance, NRA fundraising letters and NRA publications like American Riflemen consistently imply or proclaim over-the-top warnings about the U.S. government's supposed desire to regulate firearms almost out of existence. The NRA even has its own television channel to convey the message. To be fair, these outlets also include product reviews, industry news, hunting tales, and historical articles. But the political message is always there, too, and it is delivered at NRA (and other) special events around the country, too.
It might be noted that the NRA must have a surprising lack of faith in legal precedent, too, which has mostly been on their side, especially recently in the Supreme Court ruling of District of Columbia v. Heller (2008).
Could it be that the NRA misrepresents gun control advocates—the vast majority of whom do not advocate for confiscation—makes intellectually dishonest arguments, and seems reluctant to admit to the strength of their position and their many victories because they financially and politically benefit from agitating their base? I think so. Which, by the way, means that the NRA is no longer principally a organization concerned with firearms safety and education. They're a political activist group.
Generally speaking, 1. guns in American aren't going away and 2. their possession by American citizens aren't under dire threat—whatever the NRA and their most fervent supporters say. Therefore, it is not inherently a threat to gun ownership in general to impose new regulations on firearms. This is especially the case given how technology keeps increasing firearms' lethality, further threateningly public health and increasing risks to law enforcement personnel.
As it relates to firearms, I believe in the private citizen's right to self-defense. But I support stricter regulations—especially in urban environments for reasons that I think are obvious.
The regulatory proposals for firearms that I find most sensible and believe that intellectually-honest gun owners realize are not a threat to gun ownership—despite the wolf-crying, hyperventilating warnings of the NRA and surrogates enamored of conspiracy theories about the U.S. government—are those that
- prohibit technology intended to escalate semi-automatic weapons' rates of fire to de facto automatic weapon levels,
- limit the capacity of magazines,
- intend to reduce firearm accidents, or
- intend to keep firearms out of the hands of young children and the minority of Americans with mental health issues inclining them towards violence, especially mental health issues related to paranoia or impulsive rage.
This brings us to another weak argument opposing firearms regulations such as a ban on high-capacity magazines or the imposition of background checks on buyers: Because the regulation will not altogether prevent criminal use of firearms, including in mass shootings, the regulation should be rejected.
This fallacy is anchored to a kind of "all or nothing" or "black and white" thinking. It's sometimes termed the Nirvana or "perfect solution" fallacy. It rejects a proposed solution to a problem because some part of the problem would persist after the solution is in place. It's a bit like objecting to laws requiring people to wear seat belts in cars because seat belts don't prevent whiplash—i.e., since seat belts can't prevent all injuries that might occur in a traffic accident, wearing them should not be mandatory.
The Nirvana argument against outlawing high-capacity magazines is generally that the shooter will still kill many people by using multiple lower-capacity magazines. The rebuttal is common sense itself: if it means even one less death than higher-capacity magazines would result in, it's worth it. Without higher-capacity magazines, the shooter will be fire fewer bullets per minute because they will have to change magazines more frequently! Each change takes time; each change is a moment when they aren't able to fire. This gives people more time to run away, to act, to live. What is more, the shooter is likely to be more encumbered if they're carrying multiple smaller magazines in numerous pockets or pouches.
Does outlawing high-capacity magazines make a hugely significant difference to, say, the lethality of a mass shooting? It depends on how you define significant. But it's likely to make at least a minor, slight difference in terms of reducing lethality. What is more, it's highly unlikely that the proposal—in this case outlawing high-capacity magazines—will have highly problematic consequences to those who own and use firearms legally and responsibly. A 30-round magazine is not an imperative for hunting or home defense.
And yet....
The NRA will say otherwise. They will treat proposals for virtually any regulation as dire threats to the Second Amendment and the very existence of the notion of personal liberty.
(Image: Partial screen grab from the American Riflemen's website.)
UPDATE: Nearly five months after I wrote the above post, there was a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. A February 18, 2018, article in Politico.com by Bill Scher, "Why the NRA Always Wins," examines more closely the effectiveness of the NRA's political communications and organizing. Also following the Parkland tragedy, there has been some renewed focus on the role that pent-up anger plays in many shootings. See the February 14, 2018, article "Suspect in fatal Florida school attack is former student with 'anger' issues." See the 2015 article "Harvard Study Finds Anger Issues, Not Major Mental Illness, Tied To Gun Violence."
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