A tale of two amendments - part 1

One event - two Constitutional Amendments. This post concerns the shooting in Tucson on January 8  and how many people are using it to frame their arguments about the Constitution. The arguments concern the First Amendment and the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

It makes me a little frustrated when I hear people saying that if only more people had guns in Tucson that day, some of the 19 people shot (and 6 of those died) could have been saved. I read an opinion piece in the New York Times this morning that made me realize how wrong this idea is. It also reminded me of talk after the shooting on the campus or Virginia Tech that if people were allowed to carry guns on campus, this all could have been prevented. Yes, I can just imagine a group of people roaming the campus with their guns drawn. Who was the shooter? What did he look like? Was it a man? Is that him - the guy with his gun drawn, "furtively" looking around? I'll be a hero - I'll shoot first and ask questions later. Yes, that would have stopped the slaughter. Please read the New York Times article, though, It puts it much better than I can.

But likewise, there are people who would like to ignore the First Amendment and ban all "hate speech". Yes, I think a lot of speech in political ads and on radio and TV has gone too far. I'll write more about this side of the argument in a later post.

The picture of the US Constitution above is from this site.