Why I'm No Longer A Second Amendment Absolutist

Why I’m No Longer A Second Amendment Absolutist

- Elise Jordan

WHEN I WAS GROWING UP, MY FAMILY LIVED IN MISSISSIPPI on the outskirts of a small town, near a hospital. Once in a while, an inmate receiving medical treatment there would escape. One night one knocked on our door, asking to use the phone. My aunt declined to show hospitality. The inmate bolted. Soon, the police knocked on our door too. Although my aunt never touched a gun that evening, she certainly had ready access to plenty of options. The incident impressed upon me why it could be helpful to have one in the house.

The Parkland, Fla., shooting was the culmination of several troubling years of legal guns winding up in the wrong hands. I am convinced that those of us who have believed nothing should infringe upon the Second Amendment should now support commonsense gun control, from universal background checks to closing loopholes for gun-show sales and person-to person transfers of firearms. The U.S. government is so broken, it is literally killing people—at least 438 Americans have been shot in school shootings since the Sandy Hook massacre—as well-funded bureaucracies fail to keep guns out of the hands of people who are not fit for the awesome responsibility.