Sometimes you wish people in government were smarter than they are. For example, while some states are doing the right thing by seeking to nullify any Federal restrictions on the Second Amendment, other states are not so smart and are doing just the opposite by trying to actually ban the Second Amendment.
It sounds crazy, but it’s actually true. Carey Wedler gives us the scary details:
Legislators in Hawaii, which has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the United States, moved this week to bring their concerns about the Second Amendment to the national level.
In Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) No, 42, introduced Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers assert that “in light of the numerous tragic mass shootings at schools, work places, and public events, this body believes that it is necessary to repeal or amend the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
In the resolution, lawmakers urge Congress to “adopt a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution pursuant to article V of the United States Constitution to clarify the constitutional right to bear arms.”
The sponsors of the resolution suggest the Framers’ use of the term “well-regulated militia” was “intended only to restrict the United States Congress from legislating away a state’s right to self-defense.”
Hawaii has a history of enacting gun control. In 2016, Hawaii became the first state in the country to add gun owners in the state to the FBI’s centralized database (known as “Rap Back”), which allows federal authorities to notify local law enforcement when a gun owner is arrested. That bill, SB 2954, was co-sponsored by Sen. Roz Baker, who also introduced this week’s resolution.
Resolution co-sponsor Stanley Chang has a similar history of advocating gun control measures, while other legislators who introduced SCR No.42, like Sen. Laura Thielsen and Sen. Karl Rhoads, have likewise supported other anti-Second Amendment policies.
It doesn’t take a genius to understand that the purpose of the Second Amendment is to allow individual citizens to defend themselves (often from their governments), but it does take someone with an agenda and without intellectual honesty to try to interpret it in another manner.
The people of Hawaii had better try harder to prevent their government from taking away their rights or they will wake up one day with all of them gone. And they will have no one to blame but themselves.