Starvin Larry

Before I get to the meat of this blog a little story. My high school had a little less than 800 students. Our Junior History and Civics classes were combined into a 2 period 2 teacher class which most students actually liked. The teachers, both men were a hoot. The lecture about Capital Punishment and the Electric Chair is one I’ll never forget. Or the one about the Vietnam War. They brought in our Art teacher for that one, who had been a medic.

He was one of the medics in the big helicopters. You know, the ones that went to the front lines and picked up the wounded, often under fire, and whisked them away to M*A*S*H like hospitals. I graduated high school in *ahem* 1989, so a couple decades after he came home. He never talked about PTSD, I guess back then he wouldn’t have been diagnosed with it, but now, I’m sure he would be. His drawings were all over the art area. They were absolutely breathtaking. It didn’t matter the subject. Landscape, building, a person. It was all really good. But if you looked close enough, in every single one, you could find hidden somewhere, a small helicopter.

Now, in this class, one of the lectures was about the Constitution. Which, at the time, I admit, didn’t interest me much, so I don’t remember as much as maybe I should. Shame on me. I admit it. But, the one thing I do remember is the comment that the Founding Fathers never meant the Constitution to last this long. It was always meant to be scrapped and rewritten as times and people changed.

Whether this is true or not, I don’t know. It makes sense in a way, people do change. Clearly. Society at that period of time was drastically different than a hundred years earlier, so it would make sense that they would expect things to be different in 100 years. But did they write the Constitution for it to be scrapped and rewritten, for it to be a Living Constitution, (meaning that its intent is to be interpreted as society changes without needing to be amended) or was it written with the intent that it be interpreted as it was written, in the time it was written and amendments be added as needed?

There are arguments in favor of both. But at the heart of that argument lies the attack on our 2nd Amendment rights by Governor Northam of Virginia and yes, many many others. The Constitution was ratified on June 21, 1788, with the Bill of Rights being ratified on December 15, 1791, 3.5 years later. The Constitution included Article 5 which described the process for amending the Constitution. So this, I argue, means that the Founding Fathers meant for the Constitution meant for it to be amended as needed.

Recently there have been many concerted attacks on our 2nd Amendment rights. Governor Northam seems to feel that although he himself is entitled to be protected by their own security detail, who are with 100% certainty armed with guns, that the lowly law-abiding private citizen is not worthy of that same protection, even if they were to take it upon themselves. You see, Governor Northam has declared a state of emergency so that he can ban people from carrying weapons on the grounds of the State Capitol. Worried, Governor Northam? (If you’re worried, maybe you ought to rethink your recent policies regarding the 2nd Amendment. Just a thought.)

He has claimed ‘credible threats of violence’ and ‘extremist rhetoric.’ His implication seems to be that he feels that this demonstration tomorrow is nothing more than another White Supremacist rally similar to the one in Charlottesville in 2017. (I do not believe this, nor do I believe there is proof of this. I do believe this is propagandist lies designed to gain Northam support. Hopefully I am not proven wrong.) While I do not condone that, nor believe that it is much different than normal, I cannot say that I am surprised given how, shall we say, pig-headed the Governor has been regarding the 2nd Amendment and his refusal to give up his scheme of gun confiscation.

I fear for tomorrow. There will be many thousands of people there. I fear that people won’t abide by the gun ban. I fear that someone anti-2nd Amendment may start something and shoot someone. One shot is all it would take to start pandemonium. Because I’m not naive enough to think that everyone will abide by the gun ban. I’m not naive enough to think everyone will show up with a quiet, peaceful protest in mind. And I’m not naive enough to think that this powder keg isn’t set to explode. And I’m also not naive enough to think that that isn’t exactly what Governor Northam wants. Because when it goes off? You can bet he’ll be crowing from here till eternity that he was right.

Tomorrow? Means we are 1 step closer to losing our 2nd Amendment rights.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_Constitution

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Five_of_the_United_States_Constitution

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/478885-trump-warns-of-attack-on-2nd-amendment-ahead-of-virginia-gun-rights?amp&fbclid=IwAR2NKPf2-Eu3VNt0XA0OJC1VtQbH9g5fTjWSwRIe7QhIbJiBaGPRfAPg75Q

Source: https://apnews.com/9f2235a81bad59cb322d290d4ef83136?fbclid=IwAR09V3kDXmNTXL6IL51w9BqM3f3sFqrWoMI1727eNZ5DT6iCpAIb2xCLP0c