Guns

In the wake of the horrific Florida school shooting last week a predictable hue and cry by mostly political leftists is once again on full throttle for strict gun control laws in America. They think it’s a good idea to keep guns away from nut cases by banning guns altogether from everyone.

Of course, that won’t happen unless the 2^nd Amendment is repealed. Until that unlikely possibility occurs Americans enjoy a qualified constitutional right to keep and bear arms. I say qualified because arms may be regulated without infringing on constitutional rights. So it is perfectly proper, for example, to keep guns from the possession of nut cases. It’s perfectly proper to regulate the kind of guns and/or ammunition the rest of us my keep and bear.  

We can all agree then that nut cases – mentally ill people – do not enjoy a constitutional right to keep and bear arms. They do not have a right to possess guns. Convicted criminals and others prone to commit violence have no right to possess guns.

Our object as responsible citizens then is to keep guns from people who aren’t entitled to possess them. It is simply not necessary to infringe upon the constitutional rights of rational law abiding citizens.

Nikolas Cruz, for instance, the nut case who perpetrated the Florida school massacre, showed every indication, every red flag, and every other sign that he was a violent threat to others long before he murdered seventeen innocent students at that school.  The local sheriff’s office had received about 20 calls from concerned citizens regarding his threats beforehand.

The FBI was notified five months before the event about a comment Cruz made on a YouTube channel: “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.” The details of Cruz’s online comments came as former classmates, teachers and neighbors have said they long feared Cruz may have been capable of violence. He was expelled last year from that school for disciplinary reasons.

You see, the government authorities had abundant probable cause to intercept Nikolas Cruz before he committed his massacre. He should have had his guns taken away from him. He should have been incarcerated. He should have been institutionalized.  He enjoyed no constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

It certainly was not President Trump’s fault as the irrational leftists believe.

Cruz enjoyed no constitutional right to possess guns.