The Shadow
Welcome back, Shadowers! Buck Rumpf, the original Shadow would occasionally touch on national events if they had relevance to what’s going on in our local communities.
My kiddo quietly came home from school the other day, went immediately to their room, and closed the door. Then my phone starts blowing up with “Alert! Your child has just searched using dangerous keywords.”
And there it was: “school shootings,” “Georgia shooting,” and “Robb Elementary” shot off my screen like a rattlesnake, striking home. I casually knocked and opened the door and said, “How was your day?” The terrified scream said it all. “I don’t want to go to school anymore, I’ll get killed!”
What is any parent supposed to say in defense of our current national laws and line of thinking about gun safety and rights in America? “Buck up kid, it’s a roll of the dice. You can’t live your life paralyzed by fear, and trust me, it’ll never happen in your school?” Tell that to the parents of Sandyhook, Robb Elementary, Apalachee High School, or of the 229 other school shooting incidents this year alone.
How about we just say the blunt, in-your-face truth: “Hate to tell this kid, but your life just isn’t worth sacrificing our Second Amendment Rights to owning military-grade assault rifles.”
Now look, I’ve been a gun owner and NRA member just about all my life. I believe we have a right to bear arms, and all the AR owners I know aren’t the crazed mass school killer type. Like many country folks around these parts, I started shooting at an early age, receiving my first deer rifle at age 12. My kids know both NRA and Cooper’s gun safety rules at the drop of a hat. We enjoy competitive range shooting and hunting. We are a zero-tolerance family when it comes to monkey business and guns, whether at home, on the range, or in the field. So when the question came, “Dad, can we get an AR (Assault Rifle?) They’re so cool!” I said, sure, when you join the military, or when you commit to picking up every single piece of hamburger mess you created out of that deer we are going to have for dinner.”
How many pieces of child hamburger will we have to clean up before we realize that the Second Amendment does not give rights to disturbed folks using AR weapons on innocent kids in a peaceful community?
Why are we ignoring our children screaming at the top of their lungs for their lives? So we can continue to interpret the Second Amendment’s original meaning to enable the use of battlefield-designed weapons in schools? Let’s be clear, ARs are not for hunting, where the purpose is to effectively stop the heart of the animal without damaging its meat. ARs are designed to not only kill, but obliterate the human body so there is no chance of the soldier returning to the battlefield.
During the 18th Century, in Colonial Williamsburg and other parts of early America, laws required white male citizens to own and maintain arms and ammunition, mostly to suppress slave uprisings and protect the community from unfriendly actors and Native American raids. Militias, which were made up of these armed citizens, played a key role in enforcing control over both enslaved people and Native Americans.
This practice influenced the drafting of the Second Amendment. Southern states, particularly Virginia, were deeply invested in maintaining slave patrols and militias to protect against insurrections. These states wanted to ensure that the federal government could not disarm their militias, which were essential to maintaining the social order that supported slavery.
And since our modern society no longer faces slave uprisings or Native American raids, the concept of a “well-regulated militia” has evolved into something altogether different. Over the years, gun rights advocates have interpreted the Second Amendment as a safeguard against government tyranny, arguing that citizens should have access to firearms, including military-grade weapons, to resist an oppressive government. However, the notion that the Second Amendment explicitly permits armed rebellion against the government is not supported by most legal interpretations.
But regardless of which interpretation is correct, we continue to pay for our stubborn stupidity with the blood and guts of our children. And the price keeps going up.
From 1966 to 2017, School shootings have averaged 20-30 incidents a year nationwide. Then in 2018, it exploded to 119 incidents, and almost tripled to a whopping 349 incidents in 2023. Remember, we’re already at 229 incidents nationwide so far for 2024. And to top it off, we just had two assassination attempts on a former president’s life.
Have we gone insane?
“Oh, it’ll never happen in the Highlands,” you say. Let’s not sugarcoat this issue. The Highlands has an alarming history of gun violence already, so the probability of a school shooting in our community just keeps inching toward the word “imminent.”
What’s the solution?
Over in the legal department, it seems with the summer distractions and vacations, I completely missed the meeting where the Iron Gate Town Attorney Jared Jenkins not only submitted his resignation as Town attorney in a letter dated July 19, 2024, but also stated he has resigned from the VA State Bar.
As you may recall, Jenkins was embroiled in several legal disputes which led to his resignation as the attorney for Lexington and Clifton Forge. He stayed on as the town Attorney for Iron Gate, and Mayor Gary Craig confirmed back in April that they stand 100% behind Jenkins. At that time, Craig thought Jenkins would beat the disputes, but I guess that’s no longer the case. It’s interesting to note that the VA State Bar website still lists Jenkins as an attorney in good standing.
It’s less than 50 days to election day, and at the local level, candidates have introduced themselves and given their visions and thoughts on why they would be the best choice for the position. The Virginian Review has just launched its 2024 Candidate Questionnaire and poll, which asks for specific questions to specific candidates for their upcoming Debate on Oct 3. I’ve heard the questions being submitted are superb, and the community did not disappoint. Please take a moment and head over to the virginianreview.com website and become a part of the Virginian’s question panel. All questions used at the debate will come directly from voters.
I’m out of time and out of coffee, but I’ll leave you with Proverbs 14:15 to ponder while you’re choosing the right candidate to vote for. “The simple believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps.”
