Kansas HCR 5006 (Part 1: The 2nd Amendment)
CW: gun violence
Author illustration using Photoshop 2025, from an initially AI-generated image (DALL-E, using a prompt: “an imaginary young child playing dress-up wearing an oversized police uniform in a school classroom)
As of this writing, there have already been 60 mass shootings in the U.S. so far in 2025. As for gun-related deaths more broadly, the U.S. has lost about 48,000 people annually over the past few years.
That’s forty-eight thousand lives lost every, single year because of guns.
And here in Kansas, the state legislature is considering a bill (HCR 5006) – currently co-sponsored by 67 Representatives – that would put a state constitutional amendment on next year’s ballot to codify essentially unlimited gun and accessories ownership as a “natural & fundamental right” with strict scrutiny applied.
It’s pretty terrifying, actually.
There’s too much to unpack about this in a single post, so we’re going to break it down into three parts.
Part 1: The 2nd Amendment
The first 10 Amendments (aka, the Bill of Rights) were ratified in bulk on December 15, 1791, on the heels of the Constitution “… in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, … [a]nd as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government …”.
The Bill of Rights were added to the Constitution because the founders prioritized freedom from religious oppression and suppression, as well as the right to speak one’s mind, gather freely with likeminded individuals, and to speak & write about their opinions (#1). They were concerned about each state’s ability to protect itself from a potentially overbearing, tyrannical leader (#2). They worried about feeling safe & secure in one’s home (#3 & #4). And so on.
As these 10 Amendments were ratified at the same time, this means that the Red-hatters’ favorite Amendment (the 2nd) should be interpreted in the contemporary context of the other nine. A deep dive into each Amendment may be the subject of future posts, but for now, let’s examine #2 more closely:
“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”.
At this time in the nation’s history, there were polarized notions about concentrating power at a federal level versus a state level. State militias existed to protect local residents from attack or invasion. Somehow, though, we have morphed from upholding a “well regulated” and organized group of trained and disciplined individuals who were prepared to be called into duty by the State in the event of an emergency, into a modern-day, real life Doom game where every Red-hatter wants to be in his own Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto themed fantasy world where the women are both buxom and submissive, lives respawn, and you never have to reload.
No civilian has any reasonable need to own high-capacity magazines, armor-piercing rounds, M-class explosives, or a litany of other devices whose sole purpose is to kill en masse.
Side note: It should surprise no one to read that perpetrators of mass shootings are overwhelmingly white and almost exclusively male. (Read more from The Violence Project, linked below, if you can stomach it.)
Unfortunately, real human lives don’t respawn, but instead of instituting commonsense boundaries for firearms, Red-hatters continue to press for fewer & fewer regulations. Meanwhile, they’ll offer measly “Thoughts & prayers” with a praying hands emoji at the next shooting … spare me the sanctimony. That’s just a lame way to transfer fault to relieve yourself from feeling guilt. Instead, grow a spine and support reasonable public policy that might actually help protect our society from the next Dude-Bro in a red hat with a temper problem.
“But, it’s my God-given right!!” … Subscribe and read more when we delve into Part 2: Natural Rights next.
References & Further Reading
Bill of Rights transcript, from archives.gov.
CNN interview on the 2nd Amendment, from 2016.
National Institute of Justices’ Database of US Mass Shootings (because, sadly, that’s a thing).
