Armed Americans are killing our schoolkids while they study. They routinely kill them by the dozens for various reasons all across our country. Let me repeat that, armed Americans are killing our schoolkids.
The murderers of our children are excused – if not of their acts, but of their tools of murder – by a populace that has been conditioned to accept firearm ownership as a symbol of our unfettered Constitutional liberty under the Second Amendment.
This acceptance has created a deadly inertia that prevents us as citizens from keeping our kids alive in school.
But these atrocities are NOT the work of a “well-regulated militia”, the opening words of the Second Amendment and the semantic justification prohibiting the “infringement” of private ownership of firearms.
These horrific acts are perpetrated by private citizens with hate in their hearts and nothing but freedom on their minds. These are not the acts of a “well-regulated militia”. These are the acts of armed thugs.
How are we to stop this horror? Thoughts and prayers sure as hell aren’t getting the job done. We Americans are long overdue in bringing this insanity to a screeching halt. Why don’t we act?
It might be because we have tied one of our own hands behind our back in how we look at the Second Amendment. Maybe we have convinced ourselves that it is all about protecting guns.
And maybe the gun lobby is complicit in our self-delusion.
Maybe we need to read the Second Amendment not as a Constitutional prohibition of firearms regulation, but rather as a Constitutional requirement for the regulation of people owning firearms. I don’t think that the term “well-regulated militia” could be any more clear.
What if every gun owner in America was required, as a prerequisite of gun ownership, to belong to an organized and regulated militia? How would that violate the Constitution?
The Second Amendment’s authority could be used to gather all gun owners into an armed citizens’ militia intended (as I think the Framers intended) to protect the nation instead of terrorize it. And they would be given the training and discipline to do it much better than they are doing now.
What if, as a condition of gun ownership, citizens were required to submit themselves to military discipline like a rigid chain of command, regular conditioning and training, a military code of conduct, advancement by merit and other regulations of their behavior? That is certainly one valid way to look at the Second Amendment.
This well-regulated militia could serve as a civilian adjunct of our National Guard, and be called to active duty in times of emergency. They could not only help the National Guard protect our borders and our schools, they could also help fill sandbags during floods, rescue folks from blizzards and otherwise make themselves useful.
They would learn that being an armed citizen means a lot more than shooting bad guys or kids. Succinctly stated, they would be inside the tent pissing out and not outside pissing in.
I see no reason why Romeo Bouchard, Aaron Dorr and the whole WyGO crew wouldn’t jump at the chance to do something that actually helps protect gun ownership instead of just flapping their gums about it. They should be the poster boys for this well-regulated militia and what it can do to fulfill the promise of the Second Amendment, and not just hand models for Glocks.
Meal Team Six and the Wyoming Full Gospel Gun & Glee club should be right up at the front of the recruiting line for this effort. With a little discipline and training, they might not look like such imbeciles when they go strapped.
A well-regulated militia that deserves the name would help protect the state and the nation in times of need. The would be responsible gun owners. They would not consider their fellow citizens and their school children as little more than target practice.
We tried thoughts and prayers and kids keep dying in school. Let’s try something else. Lets try a well-regulated militia for once.
Rod Miller is a life-long Republican and Wyoming native. Born into a ranching family that has been in the Cowboy State since 1867, he ran against incumbent Liz Cheney for Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat in 2018.
