“The Human Cost of the Second Amendment”

“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.” – United States Constitution, Second Amendment

In her article “The Human Cost of the Second Amendment”* posted on the New York Times website, Theresa Brown discusses the negative implications of the Second Amendment (the right to own a weapon), specifically from the eyes of a nurse. A nurse herself, Brown discusses the goal of hospitals: to keep patients alive. The Second Amendment is supposedly a right. Just as we have freedom of speech, we have the freedom to own a gun. However, Brown argues, just because we believe there shouldn’t be limits placed on speech, does that mean we shouldn’t place limits on guns?

Brown’s argument is logical and moving. She writes, “Gun advocates say that guns don’t kill people, people kill people… And while there can be no argument that the right to bear arms is written into the Constitution, we cannot keep pretending that this right is somehow without limit, even as we place reasonable limits on arguable more valuable rights like the freedom of speech and due process.” By limiting the right to bear arms – how that would be done, I am not sure – many innocent lives could potentially be saved. Brown later appeals to the emotional side of the reader when she discusses how a particular trauma nurse looks at the shoes of the patients in the emergency room. “Whether they laced up Nikes, pulled on snow boots or slid feet into stiletto heels, the shoes became a relic of the ordinariness of the patient’s life, before it turned savage.” This line addresses the unpredictability of some violence. The innocent victims have no way to prepare or defend themselves. They anticipate a typical day and end up as victims of gun violence on their way to the emergency room.

Before reading this article, I didn’t have a definite opinion of the Second Amendment. I understood that guns are often used in self defense, but what if they get into the wrong hands? Now, I agree with every point Brown makes in her article. The line about the trauma nurse inspecting the shoes of the victims really struck me. I thought of when my siblings and I would put on our sneakers in the same room before heading off to school. What if that was the last time I’d ever see them tie their shoes? Brown’s argument was effective in the sense that it was heart wrenching and caused me to evaluate my position on the subject of the Second Amendment.

*http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/the-human-cost-of-the-second-amendment/?ref=opinion

This entry was posted in RCL and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply