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kleinbl00  ·  2366 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The five extra words that can fix the Second Amendment - The Washington Post

I was all set to disagree but I'm pretty much right with the honorable Justice.

As a red-blooded fan of guns and a red-blooded hater of gun violence I've tried to wrap my head around a solution for decades. I've shot assault rifles in quarries and I've seen a simple beef turn into an armed standoff because the damn things are so convenient.

I think a lot of the problems our whole society faces is that white dudes like myself are no longer the Masters of the Universe and we're takin' it hard. Gun deaths are this country's "angry white dude tax" - the cost of improving racial and gender equality appears to be some tragic number of white assholes losing their shit and hate-bombing their way out of life with as many representatives of the society that let them down coming with them.

I think we should do anything we can do to co-opt the emotions that lead to isolation, resentment and militarization and use them for good. I think all the groups that teach male bonding - Boy Scouts, Masons, Elks/Moose/Eagles lodges - are experiencing plummeting membership. I think identity politics is "anybody like me" and if "anybody like me" hates the government, likes guns, has a tough time making friends and is looking for some order, there ought to be a place for them to go where they can do some good and where the 99.999% of them that aren't crazy, that aren't going to shoot up a concert, that don't intend to take as many cops as they can down with them should rub shoulders with the .0001% and maybe make 'em a little less crazy. And if not, at least have a pipeline to bring them to the attention of the people who need to know.

    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.

How 'bout a well-regulated militia? How 'bout a step below the National Guard? How 'bout Search'n'Rescue only okay, we'll make sure you know how to shoot and stuff in case that comes in handy. We'll make you a parallel, privately-organized organization that, if you meet certain requirements, gets certain law enforcement perks like range times, discounted ammo, training, reserved frequencies for coordination, and an org chart that law enforcement or the military can interact with?

A well-regulated militia wasn't intended as an adversarial force against the government like it's become now; it was intended as a way to protect the safety and sanctity of the citizenship. I'm cool with that existing again so long as it isn't a roving band of trigger-happy LittleMen with no adult supervision. All we really need is the supervision and every paramilitary Joe I've ever met positively jumps at the chance to act in an official capacity.

Rather than amend the constitution, let's amend our approach to militias. If you have to go to meetings twice a month and do a skill check-out in order to sport 20-round mags and pickatinny rail, the gun nuts will jump at that shit, particularly if you let them know they're helping their country.