Armed Guards in Schools? The NRA Wants a Police State

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Until 2008, when modern right-wingers had control of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Second Amendment had been interpreted as a collective right – for a “well-regulated Militia,” not an individual right. But Justice Antonin Scalia led four other right-wing justices in reversing that longstanding precedent though still recognizing the government’s right to establish some reasonable limits on gun ownership.

Scalia is one who often insists that the “original intent” of the Framers must be followed. But he ignored the evidence that the Framers saw the Second Amendment as a means to promote “security,” not insecurity.

It’s also obvious that the Framers lived in a world of single-fire muskets that required time-consuming reloading between shots.The Framers had no experience with repeat rifles, let alone semi-automatic assault rifles with 100-bullet magazines, the kind of weapon that could kill 20 schoolchildren and six teachers in a matter of minutes.

Yet, LaPierre and other right-wingers insist that the “liberty” to own such weapons was what the Framers intended and is therefore inviolate.

So, to maintain this fictional “liberty,” LaPierre and his allies offer two principal solutions: one, to crack down on the media for glamorizing violence (despite the protections of the First Amendment) and put the United States on course to become ever more a police state, where heavily armed “good guys” are on guard almost everywhere waiting to gun down some perceived “bad guy.” On top of that there is the ghastly prospect that poorly trained citizens will be encouraged to whip out their own guns and start firing at every possible threat.

Surely, this is not what the Framers had in mind to “insure domestic Tranquility.”