Elected Democrats Join Republicans In 2nd Amendment Moral Swamp

ALL Oregon Elected Democrats Join ALL Republicans In 2nd Amendment Moral Swamp

Guns are for killing. Guns kill 35,000 Americans a year. Guns kill 456 Oregonians a year.

“Of the more than 360 access-related gun bills proposed by Congress since the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, only one has become law.” *1

We must first focus on these essential facts whenever we discuss gun control.

The 2nd Amendment became law on December 15, 1791 having been ratified by three-fourths of the states only 15 years after our 1776 Revolutionary war. At that time not a lightbulb nor a traffic light nor a train station nor an airport could be found anywhere in the country.

1790 America

• Total population 3,929,214 [2018 Oregon Population 4.2 Million]
• Urban 201,665 - 5.1 percent [2016 Oregon Urban 84 percent]
• Rural 3,727,599 - 94.9 percent [2016 Oregon Rural 16 percent]

The most advanced firearm in 1790 would have been the Kentucky long rifle. It was capable of firing two or three .25 to .62 caliber balls per minute out to an accurate range of 300 yards. See image at top of article. The one on top is percussion while the one on the bottom is flintlock.

“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.”

The 2nd Amendment was created two hundred and twenty six years ago to accomplish two objectives:

1. To prevent the rise of a standing federal army.
2. To preserve the institution of slavery that was the key to the southern economy by protecting the slave patrol militias in the southern states. Slavery could not survive without police state enforcement.

Our country’s current distorted, antihistorical view of the 2nd Amendment is a legal fiction invented by the gun industry and endorsed by the politicized U.S. Supreme Court.

Until 2008 there was no individual right to own a gun. The Supreme Court, with no basis in constitutional history, declared in its decision in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller that such a right did exist.

Former Chief Justice Warren Burger called this decision, “A fraud on the American public.” *2

That fraud now makes it impossible to legislate sensible gun control laws.

Today, elected Republicans, the National Rifle Association and the Supreme Court use the 2nd Amendment exclusively as a political weapon to advance the economic interests of the firearms industry.

For decades we have watched senseless, horrific massacres of our fellow Oregonians and Americans, including many children. The process is always the same: Riveted attention, Outrage, Sadness, Cries for Action, Silence, Despair, Repressed Memory ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

Lest We Forget

• Oct. 1, 2015 at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg. Eight students and a teacher were killed and nine others wounded.
• June 10, 2014 at Reynolds High School in Troutdale. One student was killed and a teacher wounded.
• Dec. 11, 2012 at Clackamas Town Center mall just outside Portland. Two people were killed and a third person seriously wounded.
• April 10, 2007 at Springwater Trail High School in Gresham. Ten students were wounded.
• May 21, 1998 at Thurston High School in Springfield. Two students were killed and 25 others wounded.

The ONLY PERMANENT way to stop President Trump, Republicans, the National Rifle Association and the Supreme Court from deliberately blocking the sensible and necessary control and regulation of firearms in Oregon and our country is to repeal the 2nd amendment thereby removing it as a political weapon.

America’s first civil war was about control and abuse of human beings. President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation “repealed” the constitution’s inherent support for slavery on January 1, 1863.

Prior to that, in March of 1857 the Supreme Court issued its Dred Scott decision which directly and affirmatively acknowledged slavery as constitutional.

Our second civil war, albeit cold, is about control and abuse of firearms.

During America’s first Civil War Southern reporters, editors, opinion writers, clergy, elected officials and businessmen were unequivocal, to the death, in their commitment to slavery as a moral, constitutional right.

Today, during America’s second Civil Cold War, descendants of these groups, without any sense of American history, continue to treat the repeal of the 2nd Amendment just as their ancestors opposed repeal of constitutional support for slavery.

Respecting the so-called second amendment rights of law-abiding citizens to bear arms is the bogus, go-to assertion of the NRA used to deny the safety and common good of ALL the American people. This includes those who are denied the inalienable American citizen’s right of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness because they were indiscriminately murdered by those with legal access to firearms.

Elected officials of any party that rely on this NRA talking point to avoid supporting repeal of the second amendment are denying the fact that when it comes to constitutional endorsements of slavery and guns you are either for it or against it. There is no middle ground.

“Compromise is not going to end the rising wave of mass murder in America any more than it ended slavery.” Frank Rich. *3

The blood of mass murders in Oregon and the United States will now be on the consciences of those elected officials that do not support repeal of the 2nd Amendment.

Accepting campaign contributions from the NRA by any and all elected public officials is NOW defined as taking massacre money. Those companies and individuals that aid and abet the NRA by financial support or any other means are NOW also in the massacre money business.

It is NOT the Media, that as Republican President Donald Trump wrongly proclaims is “the enemy of the people”. It is, in fact, Donald Trump and the membership and staff of the NRA who are the real enemies of the American people.

President Trump, Republicans, the National Rifle Association and the Supreme Court have long demonstrated their lust for money and power over the safety of American citizens.

Very sadly, every elected Oregon Democrat in the state legislature has joined the perversely disingenuous performers of the “thoughts and prayers” show.

All of their names and contact information can be found here: Secretary of State Dennis Richardson (R), Governor Kate Brown (D), U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D) and Jeff Merkley (D), U.S. House of Representatives Greg Walden (R), Earl Blumenauer (D), Peter DeFazio (D), Kurt Schrader (D) and Suzanne Bonamici (D) are also included in this rogue’s gallery.

And so it goes. And so it goes. And so it goes …

— Richard Ellmyer

North Portland

NAV, Non-Aligned Voter

Author of The Ellmyer Report, a newsletter that informs, educates and influences on public policy. Occasionally distributed to more than a quarter of a million readers in Oregon and beyond.

Facebook: Portland Politics Plus

*1

axios.com

*2

politico.com

*3

nymag.com