I think we can heal some of the societal ills, as well as
promote safety, without such a black and white either-or
as turning into a police state and trampling rights.
It's a good idea to look at what promoting safety really
means regarding rights. I think that phrases like promote
the general welfare and secure the common good give us
some vocabulary for conversation, along with the vague
phrasing of the Second Amendment which actually says
that "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."
Thus, it could be argued reasonably that rational laws
regulating and restricting gun and arms buying on the part
of private citizens would promote the general welfare and
help secure the common good. In considering the idea of
freedom, it could also be argued that individuals would both
feel more free and be freer in a society of people who do not
have access to destructive weapons or the means to use them
in public places.
We already live in a very brutal police state designed to
restrict and practically eliminate the right of people to free
speech and demonstrate. Witness the treatment of OWS as
an example. Criminal justice also targets and profiles Black
and Hispanic youths for incarceration at alarming rates,
effectively taking them off voter rolls and out of the society
which seems to fear them because fearmongering works to
keep people divided and in line. More rights are infringed
by an already existing police state than by an imagined one
that might be created if gun laws were more rational.
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