An Odessa police SUV and a U.S. Postal Service minivan that were both involved in Saturday’s shooting are pictured outside the Cinergy entertainment center on Sept. 1 in Odessa, Texas. Photo from NPR
Published September 3, 2019
WASHINGTON — Mark Charles (Navajo), the only American Indian running for president of the United States in 2020, issued the following statement after the mass shooting in Odessa, Texas on Saturday:
Mark Charles, the only American Indian running for president in 2020.
My heart breaks at the news of another mass shooting by a white male this afternoon (Saturday, August 31) in Odessa, Texas.
Since the last series of mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton just four weeks ago, I have devoted significant time to studying the Second Amendment. It is quite short. Just four phrases separated by commas.
“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.”
I have an analysis on the entire amendment that I will share at a later date, but tonight I would like to highlight the third and fourth phrases.
“the right of the PEOPLE to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”
First, only 9 countries in the world have ever Constitutionally protected the right to bear arms and currently only three offer such protections, but the United States of America is the ONLY country that does not include a restrictive provision to this right.
Second, this amendment was written around 1790, ratified just 4 years after the US Constitution. And in the Constitution, the founding fathers were quite clear exactly who they meant when they used the term “people” (i.e. white men).
Just six days after the shooting in El Paso, another white male walked into a Wal-Mart in Springfield, Missouri wearing body armor and carrying a loaded rifle and a handgun. He stated he wanted to test his second amendment rights.
And today another white male opened fire, randomly shooting people, killing 5 and injuring more than 20, at shopping centers in Odessa and Midland, Texas after police officers attempted to pull him over for a traffic violation.
The Second Amendment is a deeply problematic amendment dripping with implicit racial bias and written to arm a very specific demographic. And that demographic is flaunting and abusing that right to both the terror of our nation and the horror of the globe. And I think it is time we had an honest discussion about that.
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