opinion
The Only Honest Discussion
About Guns Rests on the
Second Amendment
BY JONATHAN S. TOBIN
he massacre in Uvalde, Texas, is just one more
in a long succession of horrifi c examples of gun
violence in America. But even after this atrocity, is it
possible for Americans to have an honest debate
about guns and mass shootings? Based on recent
experience, the answer is clearly “no.”
Yet such a discussion, painful and divisive
though it will be, is there to be had. The question
is: Will anyone among those who are the loudest
in speaking about the need to do something
about guns have the candor and the courage to
go to the heart of the issue rather than continue
to virtue signal or play politics on it?
If they do, then they’ll stop spouting anodyne
slogans about “sensible” gun control or more
laws about background checks or imposing limits
on the sales of specifi c weapons that are little
diff erent from those that would remain legal,
since those proposals barely nibble around the
edge of the issue. Instead, they’ll talk about the
real reason that the United States remains inun-
dated with fi rearms: the Second Amendment to
the Constitution, which guarantees Americans
the right to own guns. So long as this right is
guaranteed, guns will continue to be available to
criminals and disturbed individuals who use them
to commit crimes, as well as to law-abiding citi-
zens who want them for self-protection, hunting
or target shooting.

Pointing this out isn’t the same thing as support-
ing the repeal of the amendment. But if Americans
were willing to debate that idea, then they would
be having an honest discussion about guns rather
than the disingenuous pontifi cating, which mostly
consists of fi nger-pointing at political foes or
knocking down straw men, that currently passes
for informed opinion on the issue. And it would
not be out of order for the liberal Jewish advocacy
organizations that are usually at the forefront of
the posturing on guns to lead this honest debate.

But, to date, they prefer to pretend, along with
their political allies on the left, that mass shootings
and other crimes will be deterred or prevented if
regulations that do nothing more than to inconve-
nience the law-abiding are passed.

The senseless slaughter of 19 children and two
teachers at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde
was the second in number only to the loss of 20
children and six adults in 2012 at the Sandy Hook
School in Newtown, Connecticut. But coming hard
on the heels of another such atrocity in Buff alo, this
tragedy — a shocking reminder of the existence of
pure evil — was especially hard to bear.

12 JUNE 2, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
It has led many to voice understandable frus-
tration about why these crimes happen so often
in the United States as opposed to the rest of the
world. The one clear diff erence is that — unlike
in much of the rest of the world, where individual
citizens don’t possess the right to own guns or
they are severely restricted — the United States
is diff erent. The Second Amendment ensures that
most Americans who want fi rearms can get them.

Such rights are severely restricted in some states
and municipalities. Buying and owning a weapon
can be a bureaucratic nightmare. But the constitu-
tional guarantee explains why there are more guns
than people in the United States. One recent study
showed that there are currently 120.5 guns per
100 persons, a rate that far exceeds other nations.

According to Gallup, 44% of Americans live in a
gun-owning household with 32% declaring them-
selves to be personal gun owners.

Those numbers went up drastically during the
coronavirus pandemic. A University of Chicago
study found that 18% of U.S. households bought
guns in the last two years with 5% of Americans
becoming fi rst-time fi rearm purchasers during this
period. Of those, 69% were minorities, and 85% of
them were under 45 years of age.

It’s hardly surprising. Americans of all races felt
they had to protect themselves.

The pandemic undermined faith in public order
as well as increased most people’s sense of iso-
lation. The summer of “mostly peaceful” Black
Lives Matter riots in 2020 led many to believe that
police offi cers’ fears of being accused of being
racist had produced a decline in law enforcement
and a rise in crime.

This shows that there is a vast constituency
for gun rights that goes beyond the millions who
belong to the National Rifl e Association, which
is widely accused of being responsible for gun
crimes because of their opposition to even the
most minor gun regulations.

Guns are deeply ingrained in American culture.

That culture is alien to many of those who live on
the coasts or in big cities and regard guns with
horror. Though there are many Jews who are gun
enthusiasts, the constituencies that support lib-
eral Jewish advocacy groups can be counted on
to support any and all eff orts to restrict or ban all
sorts of fi rearms.

Still, these pro-gun control groups, like their
Democratic Party allies, prefer to speak as if addi-
tional regulations on gun purchases and owner-
ship will do something to reduce gun violence.

This is patently false since the criminals who use
guns don’t worry about background checks or
gun-show exceptions. As we drill down into the
circumstances of each mass killing, we almost
always fi nd that the laws that are proposed in
response to them wouldn’t have prevented those
crimes for any number of reasons. Eff orts to ban
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