“Living With Guns” argues that the Second Amendment gives Americans the individual right to own and use guns. How does the book deal with the Trayvon Martin case, which has caused a national uproar over guns, racism, and much else?
The right to keep and bear arms was, from the beginning in colonial days, always connected with civic duty. In our day, Americans own as many as 300 million guns, and they have a duty to use that right responsibly, not recklessly.
George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch patrol volunteer who shot the 17-year-old black teenager as he was walking back to his father’s girlfriend’s home in a gated community in Sanford, Florida , told police that he used his 9mm semi-automatic pistol, which he had a license to carry, in self-defense. The boy attacked him and was pounding his head into the ground face-first, putting him in mortal fear for his life, two of his lawyers said.
But standing police instructions to Zimmerman and all other neighborhood volunteers in Sanford are that volunteers have no business carrying guns when they are on patrol. Zimmerman reported Trayvon Martin, walking through the rain with his hoodie up, as a suspicious possible intruder, and then acknowledged to a police dispatcher that he had left his car to follow the boy after he started running. “OK, we don’t need you to do that,” the dispatcher told Zimmerman, who replied, “OK.”
If Zimmerman had followed these instructions, Trayvon Martin would still be alive today and Zimmerman would not be facing the possibility of life imprisonment if he is found guilty of the charge of second-degree murder that a state prosecutor finally brought against him, after a long delay.
The constitutional right to bear arms does not make people who carry guns a law unto themselves. The right is also subject to reasonable regulation. But both these propositions are under constant fire in the culture wars about guns that have polarized the country for decades. Liberals appalled by gun violence argue that nobody but the police should carry guns; conservatives and the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights lobbies have succeeded in getting 30 states to pass “stand your ground” and “home castle” laws enabling people to carry concealed weapons for self-defense and making it easier for them to use those weapons when they feel threatened. Those laws also make it easier for violent criminals to get away with murder.
“Living With Guns” hopes to start a national discussion about safety, beginning with recognition that the Second Amendment is a reality and is not going to be repealed. But Florida’s “stand your ground” law should be repealed, or revised. It contains a dangerous invitation to vigilantism, allowing the use of deadly force not only for self-defense outside the home but also “to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.” Florida’s governor has now appointed a task force to take another look at its laws. It’s about time.
But groups like the NRA should be challenged to stop whipping up fear and urging more and more Americans to pack pistols. They could be constructive, by working with state and local police authorities to better train gun owners in how to safely use firearms – and also when it is wiser not to use them.
Hysteria about guns, pro or con, has to stop. It simply leaves us all waiting for the next Trayvon Martin shooting, or the next gun massacre. The Second Amendment does not condemn us to unending gun violence, but our obstinate refusal to engage with each other about constitutional ways to control it does. The founders would be astonished by the ideological rigidity that has led to so much tragedy, and they would say we should be ashamed of ourselves for not finding a way to prevent so many deaths. We should work to be worthy of the heritage they left us.