Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, I come up here today to
speak to you about a subject that is very much dear to my heart. This issue
is the proliferation of lethal arms in the population at large in this
great nation of ours.
Since the gun scourge started two decades ago in our inner cities at
the start of the Reagan era, this issue has consumed me. That era which
included the beginnings of the crack epidemic in our inner cities, led
to a free market in the trading of all sorts of lethal firearms, which
in the opinion of the majority of people in this country, have no business
in the arms of ordinary citizens. Such weapons include assault weapons,
like the AK-47 and Uzi, which are often used in a combat situation, cop-killer
armor piercing bullets, and the like. The Reagan administration, due to
influences from its vociferous supporters in the NRA, did nothing to combat
the flow of dangerous illegal weapons to the inner city, which it treated
with benign neglect.
But it is a well known fact that when a societal scourge starts in the inner cities, which coincidentally or not, are mainly populated by minorities, it inevitably spreads to the rest of society. (Witness the dramtic increase in teenage pregnancy in the suburban population, after peaking out in the inner city one) So with the advent of the nineties, we started seeing the illegal gun and drugs trade spreading to suburbia, making such guns accessible to comfortable middle-class suburban kids. By the mid to late nineties, we have witnessed mass school killings, not in the "dangerous" inner cities, as stereotypes might lead you to believe, but in areas such as Columbine Colorado, Paducah Kentucky and the like. It is also a well-known but unfortunate fact that it is only when a crisis hits the suburbs, where most of the middle class voting population lives that it becomes a crisis for America. Since then we have heard calls for increased gun control, with a a landmark bill (Brady Bill) passed during the early years of the Clinton administration - to ban assault weapons, cop-killer bullets and implement a 30 day background check.
Our opponents on the extreme right have always asserted that it is their right, under the 2nd amendment to the U.S. constitution, to carry arms as they see fit with no restrictions whatsoever. The Second Amendment states and I quote "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." Our opponents on the right conveniently forget the first part of the amendment, which refers to a "well-regulated militia" and only dwell on the second. Even so, ladies and gentlemen, what is this well-regulated miltia? Did the framers mean by militia the anti-government, xenophobic militia that go by names like "Republic of Texas", or Oklahoma city bomber Terry McVeigh? I am quite sure that my friends in the Republican party would agree that the framers did not mean such folk. As in many articles of the constitution, it must be interpreted in the context of the times otherwise we would still be abiding by unjust laws such as the Dredd-Scott decision which classified African-American citizens as having no rights that a white citizen need respect.
No, ladies and gentlemen, the militia referred to in those days was a "well-regulated one" created by the newly formed states of the Union after the War of Independence with Great Britain in order to consolidate their newly found freedom in case the Brits changed their minds about independence. The necessity of a separate miltia to defend the independence of states was settled with the Civil War, when Lincoln succeeded in keeping the Union together. Today that militia has involved into a national federal military force with a national guard that the state governments have rights to utilize with permission of the federal govt. Equating the "well-regulated militia" with that of ordinary citizens to bear assault weapons is at best a long-shot misreading of the constitution and at worst cynical self-serving interpretation by the gun-lobby.
My friends, we in the Campaign for Sane Gun Laws are not here to take away the guns from people as the NRA would have you believe, but honestly do we need a self-loading AK-47 assault rifle to hunt deer? By the time we finish killing the poor animal with it, it would be ripped to shreds and not worth taking home for dinner. We believe in the privilege of citizens to own guns for hunting, sport and in limited cases for protection. I say privilege, for we believe that the 2nd amendment needs to be retired, reviewed or amended further to reflect the realities of 21st century society. The United States is no longer under threat of invasion by a foreign power - we are no longer a weak, fledgling nationn which requires individual citizens to defend it. On the contrary, we have the most powerful military force in the world. We are also one of the most policed states in the world, with an incarceration rate that is rivalled only by that of South Africa and Russia in the industrialized world. We do not believe, however, that armaments like AK-47 and Uzi assault rifles have any place in civilized society. Their place should be in arms depots and in the hands of combat-ready troops, not in the hands of our children. Our principle is that if dangerous weapons are not in the hands of criminals, then the need to carry arms for self-defence would be lessened.
So ladies and gentlemen, we ask you today to stand with us in demanding common sense gun legislation from the Congress. With the accession of George W Bush to the presidency, a man who has been described by the NRA's Wayne La Pierre as promising to make the Oval Office available for them to work in it, we must be more vigilant than ever. We have to make our voices heard even more loudly since the executive, legislative and yes even judicial branches of government are in the hands of our opponents (as witnessed by the Supreme Court's partisan election decision). My heart was gladdened last summer when I saw ordinary citizens rise up and decided to make their voices heard to the politicians, as they marched on Washington in the Million Mom March. How can you help? Join with us, call your Congressman, Senator, donate to Gun Control groups such as Hand Gun Control, Million Mom March, and our group, if your heart causes you to do so.
Good night, thank you and keep on fighting the good fight.