COLUMBINE AT TEN: CONTEMPLATING THE SECOND AMENDMENT.

It was in the worst possible taste for violence cultists and fadists to host a gun show in Sandy, Utah during the same weekend as the second anniversary of the Virginia Tech slaughter and the tenth anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre.

I still find it hard, after all these years, to analyze the magnitude of the sin Klebold and Harris committed that afternoon in the Centennial Colorado high school. Certain historians and mental health archeologists tried to analyze their murderous act. Who knows, really, what evil lurks in the hearts of teenage boys? Ten years later, these boys are still wedded in most people's minds like a couple. Never mind that they lived most of their lives without each others' bad influence. Together they came, though. They got their guns; they made their choices; they are together forever.

I find It easier to analyze the magnitude of the sin committed by the people who armed Klebold and Harris. They had no moral pangs about helping to arm unstable boys. They share in the credit / responsibility of the Columbine High School Massacre.

If America were a sane, civilized nation, people would not sell guns and ammo to violent people with mental illnesses. The gun sellers and manufacturers tell us that these sorts of massacres and other recent outrages in rural Alabama and Binghamton, New York are regrettable but necessary side effects of the Second Amendment.


NOTHING OF THE SORT

The Second Amendment is not about defense. It is not about hunting. It is about dominion and power and who will exercise it over others.

Gun shows are not about the Second Amendment. Gun shows are about profit; they are about exploiting fear and paranoia for money and sales.

Contemplate your neighbors and think about the ones you do not want armed in times of crisis. They will be.

I contemplate my unhappy, paranoid neighbors as they lie awake at night in their armed forts of houses . . . waiting for . . . for what? I wonder who they will eventually shoot and why.


RIGHT ASCENSION'S CALL TO ACTION.

Remember, defense does not necessarily require deadly weapons. Reform will take a while -- because many of our members of Congress believe implicitly in the virtues of violence and the profits of arms. They depend on them for campaign contributions, Still -- we must abolish the Second Amendment, which is simply a license to kill, and replace it with an amendment that recognizes the human right of self defense.