I don’t believe the time has come to dispense with the second amendment. The people need force of arms as a bulwark against tyranny. Pistols, rifles, artillery, armour, attack helicopters . . . of course, I’m familiar with the amendment. So, I assume “well-regulated militia” refers to the National Guard.
While mass shootings haven’t affected me personally and I don’t worry about the risk to myself or my family, far more likely we’ll be done in by automobiles, cancer, building fire, etc., they have had one notable effect. I really don’t have any faith at all in the direction the country is going.
The government has not made any progress toward mitigating the access to weapons, neglect of mental healthcare, and/or growth of domestic terrorism that seem to always be involved in some combination. It hasn’t acted because the people haven’t pressed it hard enough to act. Collectively, America has decided that mass shootings aren’t fun, but not something we refuse to live with.
Granted, America really sucks at democracy, lionizes violence, brags about how much it loves freedom while constantly grovelling at the feet of the rich elites and LEOs and military policy that victimizes the weak, the taxman gouges the middle class to give breaks to the already-wealthy. To borrow DJT’s turn of a phrase, “a shithole country” . . . just one that happens to have money (in some people’s hands, anyway). It’s the Wal-Mart of the world, at once immensely powerful and wealthy, while somehow maintaining a lowbrow, trashy culture and steadfastly refusing to wield its power in a manner consistent with compassion or responsibility regarding the vulnerable.
Americans are stupid. An American can be smart, compassionate, fair-minded, but in aggregate . . . well, you see what we have.