Notes of
Concern…
…Jackson Blair
STUDIED
DECISIONS
The year is coming to an end and the usual celebrations have
been toned down a great bit because of the horrible Newtown, CT tragedy about which
much has been written.
As emotions run high and funerals and memorials occur almost
every day for the small children so brutally taken from their families, there
has been a lot of talk about our current approach in the United States to gun
control.
I have an opinion.
I accept that almost everyone has an opinion.
It is also obvious that most of those opinions are, at the
moment at least, fiery, unyielding and causing a great deal of unease around
the country.
It is not my intention to present an opinion in this column
on this issue. That decision is based on my belief that controversial issues
that relate to national policy, and to Constitutional interpretation, best
occur through the slow, rational thought process that has the best chance of
arriving at a right conclusion about the way forward.
The climate for such a discussion does not exist at this
moment in time in our country.
This is the time for cooler heads to prevail.
It is time for a Congressional committee, or even better, a
Special Committee, populated with reasonable people from all sides of the “gun
debate” to gather and take testimony, revisit both the Constitution and what
Constitutional Law Professors can put forward in the way of oral and written
argument, to weigh the opinion of the people when they are not angry or afraid,
and to draw up whatever legislation or amendments seem appropriate to the
realities of American life in the twenty first century.
None of us will benefit from a rush to judgment on something
this important to our future.
Cool Heads.
Learned Scholars.
Fair and Equitable Hearings.
The end result of these things will be the best possible
decision for our country. Like so many of you, I understand the problem, the
fear, and the danger. But I am also invested in getting the final decision
right. That rarely happens when quick or emotional decisions are made in
response to an event no matter how heinous.
All of this needs to be put in perspective and then a good
decision rendered, one which will meet all our needs and be viewed as the natural
continuation of our Constitutionally based Republic.
