I watched the Rittenhouse trial closing arguments on 11/15/2021. Let me preface these remarks by saying that this post is not a commentary on the guilt or innocence of the defendant. It is not a commentary on his behavior, speech, or mental status. It has absolutely nothing to do with psychiatric evaluation or treatment. This post is all about common sense and how that has been suspended in the United States - especially over the past 10-20 years.
This post is about open carry laws in the United States.
Open carry laws make it possible for people to carry firearms publicly without
risk of arrest or search for merely having possession of those firearms. The original
intent of these laws was to reduce the risk to hunters and target shooters when
they were transporting their firearms home. There are still regulations in many states
about how those firearms need to be transported but the original open carry
laws were to make sure that there was not a problem carrying the firearms to
the home where they would be stored.
Over the past 10 years, we have seen a striking change in
how firearms are carried in public and it is the direct result of these open
carry laws. The most striking change has been the appearance of heavily armed
men open carrying military style semi-automatic rifles and handguns. They were
also often wearing bullet proof vests, body armor, and helmets. In some cases,
they were also disguised so that their facial appearance was obscured. Some of these groups were self-identified as militias
or paramilitary groups. Militias always
have a sacred role in firearm debates in the United States because when the
Second Amendment was written and approved 230 years ago – this was the wording:
“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 Second Amendment is interpreted unambiguously by gun
advocates as a Constitutional right to own firearms and the most open
interpretation is firearms of any kind and as many firearms as a person
wants. The sheer number of firearms possessed
by Americans is a matter of public record available in many places so I do not
plan to repeat it here. Record gun violence in the United States is also a
matter of public record due to suicides, homicides, and accidental deaths. The United States also has record number of
mass shootings each year that can also be found in the public record and I will
not repeat it here.
For now, I want to briefly focus on the concept of militia and
the idea that it is well regulated.
Militias
are defined as able bodied residents between the ages of 17 and 45 years
old who can be called to defend a specific state or the United States. Private militias acting outside of the
federal code definition are illegal.
That includes all groups who are not called to duty by a state governor
or the federal authorities. Even if
these groups appear to be uniformed and operating under some command structure,
they are illegal organizations. All 50
states prohibit private militias from doing what state authorized militias do. They are also prohibited from engaging in
paramilitary training and in some states brandishing firearms in a way that it could
be construed as threatening. Apart from these laws about militias, states also
have terroristic threat statutes, and statutes that restrict firearm access to
anyone with a history of domestic violence. There is a patchwork of additional
law regarding background checks, safe storage of firearms, and collecting
statistic data on firearm violence.
There is a currently a loophole in background checks because unlicensed
private gun sellers are exempt from conducting background checks on potential purchasers.
For at least 20 years, gun advocates and lobbyists have
pushed open carry and concealed carry laws to the point that they are both unnecessary
and a threat to public safety. There is no better example than when groups of
private militias or heavily armed private citizens show up at public events or
protests. History illustrates that these events can lead to confrontations,
injuries, and even deaths when they are managed by law enforcement or the state
militia – the National Guard. Is it realistic to think that untrained private citizens
or illegal militias will do a better job?
Is it reasonable to have open carry laws on the books so that these individuals or groups can potentially function in a number of ways that contradict
other laws about assuming police functions or threatening other citizens?
The only logical conclusion you can come to is that both
heavily armed private citizens or unregulated militias with a stated purpose of
assuming the function of well regulated militias or law enforcement have no
standing at all and are much more likely to add more heat than light to the
situation. They knew that in Tombstone,
Arizona back in 1881, when they passed the ordinance at the top of this post. This ordinance (in one way or another) precipitated the Gunfight at the OK Corral. We need to recognize that heavily armed citizens roaming around in our
communities is unnecessary and a recipe for disaster. Open carry laws need to be rolled back to
1881 or about 130 years after the Second Amendment was passed.
I anticipate plenty of blowback about that opinion. My only
goals are public health/public safety and preventing both unnecessary deaths
and the kinds of confrontations that led to this trial in Kenosha. I also
wanted to get this opinion out there before there was a verdict by the jury,
because at that point those opinions on what happened will fall along partisan
lines. Few people seem to recognize the seriousness of this issue – both in
terms of the high personal and financial cost of gun violence – but also the
destabilizing effect it has on the country.
I also realize that there is a sense of hopelessness in the United States that we will ever have sensible firearm rules resulting in safer communities. For a generation there has been a massive misinformation campaign about gun rights. It is possible to have a Second Amendment the way it is written and have safer communities. Rolling back open carry laws is the place to start.
References:
Transcript Prosecuting Attorney Closing Remarks
https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/kyle-rittenhouse-trial-prosecution-closing-statement-transcript
Transcript Defense Attorney Closing remarks
https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/kyle-rittenhouse-trial-defense-closing-statement-transcript
