Max Willner-Giwerc, ’24, Discusses the Second Amendment in the Wall Street Journal’s Future View
What Should We Do About Gun Violence?
Editor’s note: In this Future View, students discuss the Second Amendment. The question was posed and responses were submitted before Tuesday's school shooting in Texas. Next week we’ll ask, “The use of illegal drugs has been a problem for a long time in society. Should America do more about the opioid epidemic? Have we lost the war on drugs? What should America do to help drug policy reform? Should certain drugs be legal?” Students should click here to submit opinions of fewer than 250 words before May 31. The best responses will be published that night.
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Owning a Gun Shouldn’t Be a Right
The Second Amendment cannot, in good faith, be interpreted to establish a right to individual gun ownership. Even former Chief Justice Warren Earl Burger recognized that view was fraudulent.
The inherent purpose of a gun is to kill. An item whose sole purpose is bloodshed does not deserve the protection of the Constitution. In a country whose founding creed includes the unalienable right to life, it is shameful that we have granted so much power to something that has caused so much death.
Rights are given at birth; privileges are earned in life. We emerge from the womb with freedom of speech, but who among us would allow a child to carry a firearm? Such an absurd “right” has no place in the Constitution.
—Max Willner-Giwerc, University of Chicago Law School
Read more at The Wall Street Journal