In a whiny, nonsensical rant in the Orlando Sentinel, Maryland sociologist Fred Decker opined about what he perceives as “America’s fundamental gun problem.” Except his article had nothing to do with criminals, gang culture or lenient sentencing. Instead, he was talking about the Second Amendment.
When Decker blames “the NRA’s construing of the Second Amendment as an unconditional ‘right’ to own and carry guns” as to why it thrives and has clout, we wonder how there could be any other interpretation of “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
From his calling firearms a powerful device to “accessorize the ego” to his claim that the Second Amendment is “convenient clothing to cover deeper unspoken needs,” one has to speculate as to whether Decker has ever even met a single gun owner.
Regardless, his agenda is clear. And while he currently faults the NRA, he blames the Founding Fathers for even penning the amendment. Gun violence is our punishment for the “rights-based hubris” of the Second Amendment and is a “song of a uniquely American tragedy,” he concludes.
