And then it’ll be who’d be allowed to exercise the rights protected by the other articles in the Bill of Rights…..


Figliuzzi: More Caution Needed on Who’s Allowed to Exercise 2nd Amendment

MSNBC contributor Frank Figliuzzi commented on the shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs parade, noting similar recent incidents of gun violence disrupting places of worship and celebrations.

While the perpetrators may have legally possessed the guns used, he argued this is insufficient and society should more carefully assess who is allowed to exercise gun ownership rights.

“It’s early, but it’s never too early to talk about the role of weapons in our society. We just last weekend were reporting on a shooting at a megachurch in Houston, people going to their place of worship and that being interrupted by gunfire and a fatality. Here we are with a joyous occasion in Kansas City, and the same thing happens,” Figliuzzi said.

Figliuzzi said the media often washes its hands of these issues if the guns were legally possessed, without further examining if those individuals should have actually had access to firearms given what is known about them.

“Too often I think what the media finds is eventually a finding that perhaps that, ‘Oh, well, the perpetrators had lawful possession of those guns. Okay.’ And then they kind of wash their hands of it without a further analysis,” he said.

“Does that mean it’s okay? Does that mean that those people should have had those guns even though they might have possessed them lawfully? What do we know about them that would have caused us to do this better in terms of assessing and vetting people for gun ownership? What can we change?” he pressed.

He stressed constitutional rights should not be taken away, but that American society needs to more carefully vet who it allows to bear arms, in order to better prevent these types of tragedies from occurring.

“That’s where we seem to fall down as a society. Not that we take constitutional rights away from people, but rather that we be more careful about who it is that we allow to exercise those rights in our society,” Figliuzzi said.