The One Where I Talk About Gun Control

*dun, dun dun!!* 

There is one thing every Hill staffer knows – brace yourselves when Fox or MSNBC start using certain buzzwords. These buzzwords include amnesty, gun control, impeachment, treason, war on women, rape, voter fraud, immigration, conspiracy, Constitution, rights, attacks on the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 14th, amendments etc. When we hear these things, we as staffers man the shutters, screen our calls, and try and send the interns on as few errands as possible so someone besides me will be free to pick up the phone for the umpteenth time that day.

This round of gun control will be no different.

It’s interesting. I can tell what each major news channel is saying based on the things the constituents say back to me. For example, what I hear the most of now is how Obama is going to “take our machine guns” as if President Obama himself, robed in a black suit, black tie, and the dead of night is going to get in to his black Ford Escalade and watch as Federal Agents slip stealthily over state borders, thereby rounding-up and confiscating all guns - and possibly bows and arrows - while innocent citizens huddle together, quaking in their nightclothes, powerless to do anything as they are stripped of the only thing that will protect them from the physical threats they are (apparently) constantly endangered by. 

I, clearly, find this ridiculous. Mostly because I listened to President Obama’s address as opposed to hearing soundbites and interpretations of it on one of the (especially skewed) cable news networks.

I can also tell which side of the aisle is playing the most defense by who is calling me the most. In this case it’s conservatives. Though it really does change depending on the issue. When voter registration issues arise though, it tends to be liberals who call me more. Their rights are being infringed on! As if some cigar-chomping Republican is sitting by the voter line in a $5,000 suit, pointing his goons at any Latino/women/African-American who will vote for the opposition candidate. The goons, of course, will then take their military-style AK-47s and intimidate said minority into leaving the voting line. (By the way, there are bigger concerns with voting than just voter ID people. But that’s a blog for another time.)

Oddly enough, in both of these cases, their inflammatory cry is the same: “THIS IS MY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT!! MY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS ARE BEING INFRINGED UPON!!!”

And it’s true. In both cases. At least in my opinion (which is solely my opinion and not influenced by any policymaker. Nor does it reflect the views of any professor or politician I have worked for, been associated with, or have associated with in any social media outlet. Heck. I don’t think it even reflects the views of my parents.)

You’re right. The right to vote is a right given to all citizens in the Constitution. As long as they’re over 18. And you’re right as well. The 2^nd Amendment does discuss the right to bear and keep arms. Of course at that time they’d never even imagined a weapon that could discharge more than one bullet at a time, but whatever.

So why don’t we link the two issues together? Liberals want looser voter regulations, conservatives want looser gun regulations. Both are rights guaranteed in the Constitution and both are rights we've been forced to regulate as time as shown a handful of citizens cannot be trusted to use those rights correctly, to the harm of others.

For example – conservatives want a national voting database. Great. I say do it. But we’ll have a national gun registry as well. Most places already have a statewide voter data base, so at the very least, a person should be forced to re-register their gun with the state whenever they change states/cities. If a person wants to exercise their Constitutional right to own a gun they’ll have to register it, just like a person has to register to exercise their Constitutional right to vote.

Likewise, liberals want background checks and waiting periods before people are allowed to purchase a gun. Great. But let’s put in mandatory pre-registration deadlines for all people registering to vote. And also let’s have an ID requirement as well, since that’s a less stringent version of a background check. I’d even be all for lowering the price of ID cards, or allowing each person to receive one free ID card upon their 18^th birthday, just as long as they follow the regular protocol for identification. And yes, some citizens may slip through the cracks of this process and be denied their right to vote, but requiring mental health checks may deny some people who will do absolutely no harm to others the right to protect themselves - something the 2nd amendment was meant for as well. 

The fact is, the best way to avoid mass-shootings as well as voter-ID-fraud will be to educate people. Educate people to love people with mental disabilities, not to alienate them and create situations where a mass-shooting seems like the truly logical option. Educate people about how important it is to vote, and vote responsibly as well as what proper voting protocol should be like so they can't be duped. There are always going to be people who want to abuse the rights we have. And  yes, where our rights begin is where someone else's rights end. So sometimes protecting our rights means we have to sacrifice a little and give up something we believe to accommodate what we believe is equally important.

Take it or leave it, our rights are our rights. Whether it's guns, life, or voting, what applies to one should apply to the other. No right should be more important than any other.

And so it goes. I will keep avoiding the phone, and then nodding and making sympathetic noises when it can't be avoided and the person on the other line quotes either Sean Hannity or Rachel Maddow. And I will bite my tongue. Because not everyone is as forward thinking as we are.

-Paul Mitchell