Are we nuts?

As far as I know, the United States is the only country on the planet that has a Second Amendment, which in its most basic terms is interpreted as the Constitutional right to bear arms.

And as far as I know, the United States is the only country on the planet that continues to slaughter its own people with a horrendous butcher's bill of nearly two mass murders a day. So far, there have been over 560 mass murders in this country this year alone (the Gun Violence Archive, a highly referenced non-profit research group, defines a mass shooting as four or more people who are shot or killed, not including the shooter.)

Is there a correlation between all of this carnage and the Second Amendment? I guess that depends on who you are and what you believe and how you draw your correlation lines to connect the dots.

All of this grief and sorrow bubbled up to the surface again with last week's mass slaying of 18 people in Maine, perpetrated by a gunman using a military-style AR-15. The rifle is basically a weapon of mass destruction, usually holding a magazine clip of 30 rounds. The gun is generally chambered for 5.56x45 mm ammunition or .223 Remington ammo, with a muzzle velocity of 3,300 feet per second, which just so happens is fast enough to break the sound barrier.

Created in the 1960s, the lightweight weapon was used in the Vietnam war. It's sole purpose is designed to kill human beings. A single round can mutilate the human body. At the speed of sound. At the speed of an innocent and desperate cry.

Curiously, handguns are still the primary weapon of choice in mass murders. They are used in about 78 percent of mass murders from 1982 to August 2023, according to Statistica. Fairly or not, the AR-15 probably has earned its bloody reputation if only for the havoc its creates.

So here we are, once more wondering how we got to this place while the rest of the world wonders the same thing.

Second Amendment proponents (I always thought the Second Amendment was designed to create a well regulated militia as opposed to a loosely regulated armed citizenry) point to mental illness concerns with many of the shooters, and while there might be some substance to that argument, it makes no sense when the rest of the world also deals with mental health issues within their populations but suffers little to no mass murders at all. In my mind, the rest of the world renders the Second Amenders mental health argument as invalid.

The Supreme Court weighed in on firearms in 2008 with the Heller v. District of Columbia decision. In that case, the conservative court favored Dick Heller – who opposed a ban on handguns in the home – by a 5-4 decision.

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority opinion, added to the limited nature of the ruling, "Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited. (It is) not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose."

Scalia's opinion could see into the future. We seem to have more open carry laws than ever before. Some states no longer require training, certification or any other form of registration to carry a weapon. Even age restrictions are being lowered in some states to purchase a weapon.

Why? What are we afraid of?

We seem to be traveling a dangerous path and it's becoming more fraught with fear by the moment. 

And there's no reasonable end in sight.