Military weapons were generally never available to the public until relatively recently. Beginning in the 1970s, the NRA and arms industry began to advocate a novel and distorted interpretation of the Second Amendment, which promoted a private right to possess firearms based in part on the notion that this right was hinged on a right to rebel against the government itself. But the same Founders who drafted the Second Amendment had also defined treason in the body of the Constitution as “taking up arms” against the government.
Military weapons are designed and intended for inflicting mass casualties on the enemy in combat, not for hunting or recreational use. Semi-automatic assault rifles, equipped with devastating lethal high velocity bullets and mega-capacity magazines, destroy the internal organs of their targets and cause extremely high fatalities. As an emergency room trauma surgeon who tried to save victims of a mass shooting perpetrated by a killer wielding such a weapon described it — the victims’ organs looked like overripe melons that had been smashed by a sledge hammer. There was nothing left to repair.
In 1994, after 98 people were murdered by shooters wielding such weaponry in separate incidents in California and Texas, Congress passed a 10-year ban against the commercial sales of assault weapons. There were no mass shootings during the decade of the ban.
But in 2004, a different Congress let the ban lapse and refused to extend it despite its success. Even worse, that same Congress, knowing that the carnage would resume after the expiration of the ban, enacted legislation, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) after lobbying by the arms industry and NRA, to immunize manufacturers and dealers of these military grade firearms from civil liability arising from the inevitable mass murders that resulted because of their reintroduction into the private market.
A sample of the tragedies which followed include: Virginia Tech, 33 fatalities (2007); Fort Hood, 14 fatalities (2009); Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, 27 fatalities (2012); San Bernardino, California, 14 fatalities (2015); the Orlando nightclub in Florida, 49 fatalities (2016); Sutherland Springs, Texas, Baptist Church, 26 fatalities (2017); Las Vegas, 58 fatalities (2017); Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, 17 fatalities (2018), El Paso, Texas, 22 fatalities, 26 wounded (2019); Dayton, Ohio, 9 fatalities, 27 wounded (2019).
More recently, the utterly fabricated pseudo-justification for trafficking in military weaponry — the supposed “right” to commit treason by waging war against the government — has featured heavily armed seditionist “militias” plotting to attack the Capitol of Michigan to kidnap and execute its governor and other officials and — even more sinister — attack the very seat of the government of the U.S. Congress, in an effort to murder the vice president, the speaker of the House, and the Senate majority leader and other legislators as well as others deemed “enemies” by the “militias.” This was nothing less than an attack on our democracy itself.
The Jan. 6 armed assault of the Capitol overwhelmed security and came perilously close to decimating the nation’s Congress and obliterating the freedom of the people electing our leaders. And all of this was energetically provoked and encouraged by the warped contortion of the Second Amendment — a contortion that has its roots in the greed of the arms industry to generate revenue. It is now irrefutable that the cost to society of flooding the market with military weaponry is measured not only by the multitude of lives that already have been lost and broken, but likewise threatens the cost of civil war and the loss of all our cherished rights and freedom.
For this, Congress grants “immunity” to the arms dealers? For rewarding sedition, mass murders, violent attacks on our Constitutional heritage of self-governing through free and open elections by the citizenry?
It is past time for Congress to cease subsidizing those who profit by and engage in these horrendous attacks on the People, their children, and their government. I encourage all citizens to urge their representatives in Washington D.C. to immediately repeal the PLCAA.
A former federal prosecutor, Judge Thomas Coffin was a U.S. magistrate for the District of Oregon until his retirement in 2017.
A Note From the Publisher
Dear Readers,
The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.
That’s because of you!
Not just because of financial support (though that matters enormously), but because of the emails, notes, conversations, encouragement and ideas you shared along the way. You reminded us why this paper exists and who it’s for.
Listening to readers has always been at the heart of Eugene Weekly. This year, that meant launching our popular weekly Activist Alert column, after many of you told us there was no single, reliable place to find information about rallies, meetings and ways to get involved. You asked. We responded.
We’ve also continued to deepen the coverage that sets Eugene Weekly apart, including our in-depth reporting on local real estate development through Bricks & Mortar — digging into what’s being built, who’s behind it and how those decisions shape our community.
And, of course, we’ve continued to bring you the stories and features many of you depend on: investigations and local government reporting, arts and culture coverage, sudoku and crossword puzzles, Savage Love, and our extensive community events calendar. We feature award-winning stories by University of Oregon student reporters getting real world journalism experience. All free. In print and online.
None of this happens by accident. It happens because readers step up and say: this matters.
As we head into a new year, please consider supporting Eugene Weekly if you’re able. Every dollar helps keep us digging, questioning, celebrating — and yes, occasionally annoying exactly the right people. We consider that a public service.
Thank you for standing with us!
Publisher
Eugene Weekly
P.S. If you’d like to talk about supporting EW, I’d love to hear from you!
jody@eugeneweekly.com
(541) 484-0519
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