Dominic Erdozain

Depressing but passionate narrative about how the Supreme Court, and Republicans in general, got it so wrong. The Founders, he argues, had a very clear conception of the militia and of states’ rights to decide who would be armed; but as the militia became outdated, it was possible to reframe the Second Amendment as a personal guarantee, despite the ahistoricity of that concept. He frames a key culprit as being the myth of the innocent gun owner/the myth that there are good guys and bad show more guys and never the twain shall meet, when—among other things—carrying a gun makes people get in more fights, even aside from the racism that means that the freedom to carry a gun is a white person’s freedom. Thinking of oneself as a morally pure innocent contributes to a willingness to kill when feeling threatened. Not that the racism isn’t also key: Erdozain recounts how William Faulkner—who called himself a critic of segregation—said that if the federal government forced integration, he'd take up arms against it “even if it meant going out on the street and shooting Negroes. After all, I’m not going out to shoot Mississippians.” show less