How Should We Defend Our Rights?

Let’s keep this simple. The “rule of holes” says that the best way to get out of a hole you’ve created is to first stop digging. Our legal system doesn’t work. It has been turned against millions of honest citizens, and it is time to admit it is broken. What our legal system should do in theory is not what we see in practice, and this isn’t the first time we’ve had this problem.

The situation is easy to describe. The US Supreme Court offers a handful of rulings on a given subject each year. At the same time, lawmakers pass, and lower courts uphold, dozens of bad laws on that same subject. This isn’t a matter of accidently passing slightly imperfect laws. Politicians deliberately write laws that violate the constitution, and they do so faster than the US Supreme Court can correct them. The Constitution does not enforce itself. That means we get an ever-growing proportion of bad laws that undermine society. The right to bear arms is only one of the latest examples.

Legislators in 11 anti-gun and anti-rights states effectively eliminated the right of the common man or woman to carry a firearm in public for self-defense. The district courts and appeals courts upheld those bad rulings. In counterpoint, the Supreme Court overturns a few bad second amendment laws a year. The court takes a major second amendment case once a decade. The lower courts in those problem districts largely ignore the rulings of the superior court.

As I said, we’ve been here before. Recall the civil rights battles where it took almost a century from freeing black slaves until their great grandchildren could safely walk into public schools. In several states, the courts had to appoint special masters that took control of civil rights laws. Compare that to what we see today.

Recently, the USSC said that states must issue concealed carry permits to ordinary citizens who go to ordinary places for ordinary purposes. The 11 anti-rights states then declared that most of the state was now a “sensitive place” where concealed carry was outlawed.. unless you were a politician or a retired cop. Millions of honest citizens again have rights in theory but not in practice. The list of ongoing infringements is huge and growing.

I understand why judges are reluctant to use extraordinary measures. When should the court stop making adjustments at the margin? When will they say that Special Masters are needed to monitor and enforce civil rights laws surrounding armed defense?

Tomorrow is barely soon enough because bearing arms is not a trivial right. About one-in-a-dozen adults in public are carrying concealed today, and many more could carry, but don’t. These armed citizens stop over half the attempted mass-murders they encounter. Honest citizens use a firearm for legal defense of innocent parties almost 3-million times a year. That is a lot of lives that are saved each year, and put in jeopardy by bad laws every day.

Math is hard and feelings are easy. That is true for many voters, and apparently true for judges on the US Supreme Court too.