Thomas Jefferson, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Marion Hammer, Hannah Kelley. They all have something, alas, in common. They are all constitutionally connected.
Founding Father Jefferson once noted that every constitution “naturally expires at the end of 19 years.” Change is a constant, Jefferson believed, so adapt. Even the most visionary among us need periodic updating. “Don’t channel me,” he was saying, in effect, to future generations.
Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg recently upped the ante on constitutional context. “I would not look to the United States Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012,” she soberly noted. “Who back then could have envisioned violent video games, freedom-of-expression lap dances or automatic weapons for citizenry sale?” she might be asking rhetorically.
Marion Hammer is an ardent gun-control opponent, the first female president of the NRA and currently a high-profile NRA lobbyist in Tallahassee. She (along with Florida Carry Inc.) recently complained to state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam that the Florida State Fair was not allowing those with a concealed weapon permit to legally enter with their firearm. The Fair is now enforcing Florida’s carry law and replaced its “No Weapons” signs with those that say: “No Unlawful Weapons.” Thanks again, Marion.
Hannah Kelley is the pastor’s daughter who was tragically killed in a gun accident at the Grace Connection Church in St. Petersburg.
They are all connected through the Second Amendment to the Constitution. The personal right to “bear arms” one. The one that begins with: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state… .” The much abused, politically galvanizing one. The one every yahoo knows as soon as he graduates from a sling shot. The one that the Florida Legislature keeps whoring out to the gun lobby over.
Exhibit A: Since 1987, Florida has been allowed to pre-empt the whole field of local gun and ammunition controls. Last year, however, the Legislature finally imposed serious fines for those who understandably hadn’t been enforcing it. The threat of tough penalties was the incentive for the State Fair to comply.
The issue is a microcosm of what happens when the constitutionally self-serving misread and mislead. The “carry” envelope keeps being pushed. How dare carry advocates deign to channel the Founding Fathers who were wise and enlightened, but hardly clairvoyant? How dare they do it with the one Amendment that is literally lethal?
Where will this carry insanity end? With some liquored goofball calling out a State Fair concessionaire? “You call that a corn dog, pal?”
It’s a mindset, a mood, a political climate and, worst of all, a rallying mantra. If you traffic in the words “right,” “constitution” and “Founding Fathers,” you can’t possibly be wrong.
Wrong.
Just ask the fiancé of Hannah Kelley. He was inexplicably in the market for a handgun for his birthday, and a fellow Grace Connection congregant accommodated by bringing his piece to church. Why not? Sacrilege is so old school, plus he had a license to carry. And then, as we know, a tragic, round-remaining-in-the-chamber accident happened.
But gun accidents are not supposed to happen in church. Unless, of course, constitutional revisionists can successfully cherry-pick their way to a society that can rationalize heat-packing at the workplace, on campus, in a park, at a State Fair–or, ultimately, in church.