I wrote this letter years ago, first to Joe Biden, then to Kamala Harris and now also to Barak Obama …
… this open letter is in the appendix of my book, page a54
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Open letter to the POTUS
Dear Mr. President …
More than 30,000 gun-deaths p/year can’t be ignored; to be clear, the National Rifle Association is culpable. Their primary weapon – The Second Amendment – does not serve America well; in fact, it is the NRA and The Second that ensure the more than 30,000 deaths every year.
The NRA convinces Americans The Second gives them a right to self-defense; a chief justice (see below, also on page 5) called this: “One of the greatest frauds on the American public.”
Americans are conditioned to say they need their guns to ‘protect themselves and their families’. Yet, Harvard research found victims use guns in self-defense in less than 1% of contact crimes.
Note: retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger deemed the issue of self-defense mandated by The Second Amendment, “one of the greatest frauds – I repeat: fraud – on the American public by special interest groups”.
Mr. President, you said you are being asked ‘to do something’. Well, ‘something’ will only count if it saves those 30,000 lives. For that The Second has to go.
The talk about how owning and using a gun makes people feel safe boggles the mind.
Note; A road rage incident led two drivers – both concealed carry permit holders – to get out of their cars, take out their guns and kill each other.
The response in the US? Thoughts & prayers (especially prayers; not much thinking); excuses; justifications; white-washing; lies … and talk, talk, talk and more talk (Sam Harris, I find your talk with Graeme Wood highly unsatisfying).
I am from a European background (Germany, now Australia) where guns don’t exist in public. I have never touched, held or pointed a gun … let alone fired one.
Note: 30,000 killed every year by guns in America; combine the populations of a bunch of European countries, you get a size similar to the USA … they have a little over 100 gun-deaths every year. Why is that? Is it because Americans are more prone to be murderous? Or is it because those countries have effective gun laws?
So, allow me to make this point: The solution to the US gun problem is obvious to Europeans. The Second Amendment (of 1791) was for a different time in history. It’s unsuited to our times.
It now is distorted to say:
“The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, so that Americans can freely continue killing one another.”
This means unequivocally it must be retired.
What about Americans’ right to own and use guns? Good question … that right cannot, shall not be removed; it is a fool’s errand to try and remove the guns in the USA.
But importantly, all guns shall be restricted to sequestered, gated, resort-style gun-clubs, with shooting ranges. Indeed, every town shall have one. It is here people are able to enjoy their guns; to use any gun their heart desires, anytime, as long, as much as they want: pistols, shotguns, automatics, sniper rifles, AR-15s etc.
However, if not in use, the guns are kept under lock and key.
In the community individuals shall not be able to store, carry or use guns … unless they can provide good cause, like shotguns for farmers (for pest control) or hunters who have undergone rigorous back-ground checks, training and licensing for their hunting rifles; also for police as well as security personnel. Yet, there will be stringent conditions to own a handgun in the community. Keeping a gun anywhere but in a gun-club – unregistered, without a license – will be a felony … you’ll go to jail.
However, Americans cannot countenance this suggestion (… hence it comes from overseas). Republicans, who are in thrall to the gun lobby, would not have a bar of it; with The Second in place, anti-gun laws just won’t fly and any genuine effort to reduce gun deaths is doomed.
Note: With this plan gun industry interests are not impinged upon, guns will still be bought; they just will be kept in gun-clubs, for recreational uses, instead of being used for killings and murder. In fact, it will be a boon for gun manufacturers; with advertising geared toward the recreational markets, they’ll gain acceptance, even support from anti-gun groups who just want to see guns taken out of the community and will be satisfied with them put into a benign, non-violent context.
So, here’s the thing: There is a powerful, well-financed gun lobby in America … where is the powerful, well-financed anti-gun lobby in America? A call must go out to philanthropists like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, George Soros, Michael Bloomberg et al.
Note: These suggestions actually are not anti-gun … but anti-accidental killings, anti-suicides and anti-murder.
They must be rallied to form a lobby financed well enough to exceed the largesse of the gun lobby, to exert influence on Republicans and turn them against the reactionary stance of ‘Don’t Touch The Second’; to support anti-gun Democrats’ election campaigns to have them elected to the Senate.
This is probably the only way to sway enough politicians to cross the line, to not just amend The Second Amendment … but to throw it out altogether; to get a resolution for this God-awful dilemma of gun violence. Indeed, everything else but throwing The Second out once and for all – and making serious changes to how guns are kept – is window dressing.
Hard work? Yes. Impossible? No … “What did it take to put a man on the moon? The will to do it. Was it easy? No … that is why we did it, because it was not easy,” somebody said.
Worthwhile? Well … just ask one of the parents of Sandy Hook, Columbine or Uvalde.
Note: It’s incomprehensible that the most powerful, most advanced society on Earth throws their hands up in the air and again and again says: “It can’t be done … we are helpless.”
Anyway, how shall this work? How can the idea of a gun-club in every town be put into practice? First of all … how much will this cost? A lot of money. But let’s ask another, more pertinent question: What is the cost of gun deaths to the American people?
A quick Google search reveals: In any year gun violence costs America $280 billion (this includes costs for survivors, communities, employers and taxpayers). Every year! Obviously, even spending a couple of hundred billion dollars on gun clubs is money well spent.
Google: Number of US cities, towns, villages – 19,502 incorporated places registered in the United States; 16,410 had a population under 10,000 …
… $200,000,000,000 divided by 20,000 = $10,000,000 for a gun club in every town and village; large cities will have more than one club, but there are less than 100 towns with 250,000 people and only 10 cities with 1,000,000 or more, and small hamlets would pool with their neighbors.
Once established, the gun clubs will pay for themselves, they will develop their own economy. This means the savings to the US financial system will amount to tens of billions of dollars, each and every year … while – of course – Americans can still practice their ‘right to bear arms’.
There are approximately 60,000 gun dealerships in the US, maybe some 40,000 is enough? So, with 20,000 gun-clubs, that’s two gun dealers in every gun-club … but none in the community.
Without The Second Amendment the whole American gun paradigm will shift; without guns in the streets, shopping malls, schools, playgrounds and homes, there will be less gun violence. If any.
As soon as guns are treated like any other object of desire, i.e. vintage cars, custom motor bikes, leisure boats, audio-, video-, camera-, computer systems, camping, fishing and myriad other recrea-tional gear – instead of murder weapons – the impact on the American society will be profound.
But the point is Americans can still indulge their passion for guns to their hearts’ content. Of importance is to retire The Second and to keep guns out of the community (in this context, the issue of ‘Self-defense’ must be revisited and looked at realistically … see below).
Once these new-type of gun-clubs – recreational, resort-style facilities – are established, they will not only be a coveted destination for gun enthusiasts and recreational shooters, but also a bolthole for the angry or dejected … when they need to let off steam by firing their guns.
These new gun-clubs will have two sections: The main area – the passive shooters’ area – will have a bar / club / resort atmosphere, not unlike golf clubs, entertainment venues with bandstands, casinos.
This is also where the gun shops are located, where dealers have all types of firearms available, and makers have their exhibits (just like a gun show … they indeed are sponsored by the gun industry).
It is here gun enthusiasts congregate and openly carry their guns, talk to other enthusiasts, inspect, compare, appraise weapons; the atmosphere is holiday-like, easy-going … even children are allowed here: an emphasis is on education … know your guns, but also learn that they are not toys.
Importantly, no ammunition is kept in the passive shooters’ area.
Adjacent – with glass walls, so shooters can observe their buddies – is the secure, soundproofed active shooters’ area, with the shooting ranges; members will have another locker here, for their ammo. Ammunition sales will be conducted here and it is here – and only here – where guns are loaded and fired. These shooting ranges feature ‘realistic’ shooting sets, like Western or video- game style environments … a lot of creativity will go into designing them.
After practicing ‘their right to arms’, they will lock away surplus ammunition, take their gun(s) back to the passive shooters’ area … dissemble, clean, lubricate, re-assemble and care for them, discuss ins and outs of their specific weapons with other shooters, and generally love their guns.
One may ask, what do shooters want? Do they really want the freedom to go out and kill people? To be very clear … the NRA premise of ‘self-defense’ is a self-serving furphy (= Australian term for an erroneous or improbable story claimed to be factual; furphies are heard from supposedly reputable sources, sometimes second- or third-hand and widely believed … until debunked).
And it is naïve to say that only ‘bad guys’ kill people. Many good people snap, and with a gun at hand, they may kill (their children, wife, ultimately themselves). There is the call for more mental health support … ok, that indeed will help. But not in the short term, nor for everyone.
To be sure, only no-guns-in-the-community will stop the killings.
Let me repeat that:
only no-guns-in-the-community will stop the killings.
Exactly how many crimes are prevented by citizens who interfere using – i.e. firing – their own guns?
Note: in Uvalde C. Briseno was prevented by law-enforcement officers from doing just that.
Firearms are used far more often to intimidate than in self-defense. Most purported self-defense gun uses are escalating disputes (like the two drivers executing a double murder on each other).
The ‘false positive’ problem leads to large overestimates of the incidence of self-defense gun use; it was found that the claim of many millions of annual self-defense gun uses by American citizens is invalid (Harvard Injury Control Center); guns are mostly used in black-on-black gang violence, domestic violence, home-grown terrorism … where ‘good guys with guns’ are unable to interfere.
What are the next steps?
Step 1: Do a test … choose a town and build a sample of the new type of gun club, while getting the population on-side and motivated to put their guns under lock and key. You will go all-out and put a great amount of effort into building a resort-style facility that will be very attractive for people to come to and socialize … indeed, not only gun enthusiasts, but anybody and everybody; a family friendly facility, not unlike an upmarket golf or tennis club.
Step 2: As soon as possible do the same in a couple more (probably adjacent) communities … and this shall be done well before the assault on The Second (and the NRA). After just a little while it will become clear if the plan yields results: less shootings, less domestic violence, less suicides … a more secure, more stable community, free of any anxiety that may exists because of the fear of becoming an innocent shooting victim. Once this is established (and it will succeed !!!): The Second has to go. Next the measure described above (jail for carrying a gun in public) shall be put in place.
Mr. President, is it not shocking that Americans deem dozens of children massacred a fair price for their ‘right to bear arms’? The deaths are a direct result of the existence of The Second Amend-ment; furthermore, they are a result of its exploitation by the NRA.
The NRA needs to apply a dramatic re-think: the self-defense ploy is delusional, its inappropriateness is amply demonstrated … the emphasis in the argument for buying, owning and using guns (and potentially using them to kill people) must be re-directed toward purely recreational uses. It is a fact: many Americans like their guns … so be it. Have your guns; but let’s be safe.
The truth is: this current situation demands the implementation of truly effective, drastic, indeed extreme steps to save lives … more than 30,000 gun-deaths p/year can no longer be ignored.
It is time for a change. Whoever brings this change is a hero. They will carve their name into history.
Sincerely, C. Burmeister
www.carstenburmeister.com
cb @ carstenburmeister.com
p.s.
this is a project that needs to be vigorously pursued by a high profile, well-known person who is in the position to inspire prominent, high-value individuals and who has the stamina to not let go … to not be pushed aside or under-mined by vested interests; a motivated person with integrity and a trusted position in the community. This pool of people – needless to say – is small
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The Second Amendment is one sentence:
“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.”
In the days following a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two adults dead, former conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger, who was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1969 by then-President Richard Nixon and retired in 1986, said:
“The Gun Lobby’s interpretation of the Second Amendment is one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word: fraud, on the American People by special interest groups, that I have ever seen in my lifetime.
“The real purpose of the Second Amendment was to ensure that state armies – the militia – would be maintained for the defense of the state.
“The very language of the Second Amendment refutes any argument that it was intended to guarantee every citizen an unfettered right to any kind of weapon he or she desires.
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