How To Lose Your Rights
Take an extreme position that scares society.
On July 4th 2022, a gunman climbed onto the roof of a building in Highland Park, Illinois, and opened fire as a Fourth of July parade began, killing seven and injuring dozens. A year later NPR reporters talked to people in town to see what had changed in the preceding year. One reporter noted that all of the adults he spoke with said, “how could this ever happen in Highland Park?” But every kid said, “we expected this to happen,” though most thought it would happen at school, not at a parade. The idea that many kids expect to be involved in a mass shooting is chilling, and that will have consequences.
Here’s how to lose your rights. First, take an extreme view of the application of your preferred Constitutional right. Second, enact laws based on that theory. Third, act surprised when the public comes to view your favored right as a danger to society.
This isn’t a hypothetical. In the 1950s, as part of the Civil Rights movement, progressive groups challenged a variety of harsh police tactics, including random searches and the planting of evidence, as contrary to the words and meaning of the Constitution. Cases challenging these tactics eventually ended up at the Supreme Court. In a number of rulings, the Court decided to take the words of the 4th Amendment at face value, and severely restricted the ability of police to search for evidence of a crime.
Unfortunately, these rulings came just as society was experiencing a rise in crime, and there was an immediate political backlash. Conservatives said the Supreme Court had created a “Get Out of Jail Free Card” for criminals. Republicans campaigned on “Law and Order,” and accuse liberals of being “soft on crime.” Eventually laws were enacted narrowing the judicially created search and seizure restrictions, and now the exceptions subsume the rule. This should serve as a warning.
Gun rights activists selectively quote the Second Amendment to say the right to “bear arms shall not be infringed,” and claim that as a result, there can be no restrictions on the right to own or carry a weapon. Based on this theory, many states have eased restrictions on gun ownership, and many have virtually eliminated concealed carry requirements. As restrictions have eased, the number of guns in private hands also increased dramatically.
The consequences are obvious. The per capita murder rate from guns has gone up, and so far in 2023 there has been more than one mass shooting per day.
To deal with the fear of school shootings, Kentucky recently enacted legislation to put “resource officers” (or armed security guards) in every school. Most schools across the country are locked during school hours, many high schools have metal detectors, and students across the country routinely have “active shooter drills.” Increasingly, studies are showing that these measures traumatize children and are a leading cause of high rates of depression and anxiety among young people. And its why most kids now think they’ll someday be involved in a mass shooting.
It seems obvious that we as a society would rather traumatize an entire generation of children then inconvenience, even slightly, gun owners.
But here’s the reality, those kids will grow up. Well, most, anyway. A tiny fraction will die in school shootings. And given the fact that guns are now the leading cause of death for children in the U.S., many more will be killed by a firearm. But most will reach adulthood, and we shouldn’t be surprised if they decide that the balance in society should be shifted away from unrestricted gun rights.
And so, at some point the tide will turn, just as it did for the 4th Amendment. It appears that the biggest danger to gun rights isn’t those seeking reasonable restrictions, but those pushing an extreme and increasingly dangerous position. With friends like that, the Second Amendment hardly needs enemies.
