If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Rather than attempting to resurrect a nineteenth century notion that Congress cannot regulate goods wholly within a state, what we should be asking is whether Congress has the power to drive products out of the market altogether.
The NRA didn't just throw down the gauntlet to our government in Houston. It also articulated a vision of America and its ideals that is the antithesis of what our Founders intended, and which would mean the absolution of our Constitution.
On 9/11, Islam jihadists turned four U.S. airlines into weapons of mass destruction and killed almost 3,000 people. Within a month the George W. Bush ...
Sandblasting the Constitution to restore its actual text reveals that it lacks the absolutes urged by the graffiti artists. There is no right to bear any particular arm.
Underlying the sharp divisions over fundamental questions is the widening fissure between the two parties. It's fashionable to describe this development as the result of a more or less symmetrical shift -- with Democrats moving to the left while Republicans move to the right. That conclusion is just plain wrong.
We all give ourselves labels: liberal, conservative, gun owner, gun reformer, but none of those are instinctive. They are not in our DNA. Perhaps maternal instincts are the key to solving the horrific problem of gun violence.
On this Mother's Day, it is hard not to feel inspired and hopeful by the robust and sophisticated grassroots movement building of moms across America who have organized to fight for safer gun law legislation.
As "Sandy Hook Moms," we often hear the phrase "I can't imagine what you are going through." Well, please imagine it. Imagine what it's like to lose a son or daughter to gun violence and encourage your elected officials to do the same.
The "Faces of Courage" campaign is focused on honoring gun violence victims and their families -- and taking action so fewer mothers who are celebrating Mother's Day this weekend will be mourning their own children next year and in years to come.
Giving a rifle to a five year old might be a quaint tradition, but with it comes a grave responsibility. That same responsibility should extend to every gun owner.
The pro-gun vs. anti-gun debate does not address the realities of gun violence in America and the most critical issues in preventing it.
That day in December, I wept, as many of us did, for people we didn't know, but who could have easily been any one of our family members. But in April, when 46 Senators voted to block a bill to make our children and families safer, I was outraged.
If the NRA is not going to give an inch on the Second Amendment, then let's invoke our absolute First Amendment rights to speak and assemble without restrictions.
Some might ask, why not just stop? You gave a good fight, but why not just return to your old lives and leave this gun business alone? The reality is we don't have a choice.
I understand that there is a rich culture of guns in the United States and that weapons are often passed on to children as heirlooms. Also understandably, parents want to teach their children how to use those guns safely. But none of this training needs to start at the age of five.
It takes an exceptionally pliable hermeneutic to read the Gospels and come away thinking that the one who abjured violence and commanded his followers to love their enemies was, you know, cool with the Second Amendment.
