While lawful gun owners fight a daily battle against all manners of infringements on Second Amendment-protected rights, seldom do we hear outright calls for repeal of that portion of the Bill of Rights that protects gun ownership.
But that’s exactly what a recent op-ed posted at blackstarnews.com advocates for—in a convoluted kind of way—stopping the argument over gun control by repealing the Second Amendment.
Author Tom H. Hastings is the coordinator of Conflict Resolution BA/BS degree programs and certificates at Portland State University. And he writes just about like you’d think someone with such a dignified yet meaningless job title would.
Hasting’s premise is for anti-gunners to handle the Second Amendment debate differently than the current trend of passing laws and courts finding them unconstitutional. Rather than keep fighting that battle, he believes just changing the Constitution is a better method.
He advocates that gun control groups develop a BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement), thereby tying the hands of those who advocate on the side of freedom.
Hastings writes: “My choice of BATNA would be, ‘Look gun rights people, we want to negotiate common sense regulations with you. However, literally every time we pass such measures at the local or state level, you work to overcome the will of the people by challenging those commonsense measures in court, with your lawsuits, and it’s all based on the Second Amendment.’”
Uh, yeah, that’s what our freedom is based on. But for sure, Mr. Hastings, tell us more.
“So, we have a best alternative to a negotiated agreement,” he continued. “Our BATNA is that we are going to stop all other gun control work and focus all our resources on a campaign to repeal the Second Amendment. We have a template for that; the amendment outlawing alcoholic beverages was passed and a decade later that Amendment was repealed. We are either going to get your commitment to allow our democratically produced local and state laws honored or we will end our negotiations and begin a massive campaign to overturn the Second Amendment.”
Sounds reasonable. Surely there’s not more:
“We have commitments for this focus from literally hundreds of nongovernmental organizations plus many state and local governmental units that you’ve frustrated over the years,” he continued to continue. “We’ve organized these commitments from all the gun control groups you know about, plus public safety and public health organizations—including scores of local and county police chiefs and their officers—as well as healthcare workers’ unions, teachers’ unions, and PTAs. This is a nationwide commitment and we are ready.”
Sounds scary. But wait, there’s more!
“Everything else is regulated as various jurisdictions see fit, from standards for ladders to tools to children’s toys, to clothing, etc., as common sense and the voters decide,” he almost concluded. “We are going to regulate guns, too. Child toy safety law is to protect the lives of children and gun control is for the same purposes. Think this over and get back to us within the month or we begin our massive shift of people energy and resources toward our new goal.”
Hastings then wraps up the article with this assertion: “That’s how a BATNA can change the trajectory of a conflict. That’s how ‘unwinnable’ can flip to winnable.”
Hoo boy. I don’t know about you, but I’m not exactly quaking in my boots.
Still, Hastings has thrown down the gauntlet. Will any gun-rights groups choose to negotiate with him in good faith? After all, who’s more qualified to lead a repeal of the Second Amendment than a superstar Coordinator of Conflict Resolution BA/BS degree programs?
Read the full article here
