Made in America

I’m just a plainspoken Colorado criminal defense lawyer, but the way I see it…

Wild Bill Hickok used to boast that the bullet hadn’t been made with his name on it — until, of course, someone made the bullet with his name on it.

The soul-crushing cover of this week’s The New Yorker magazine has all the bullets made with the names on them of all the people who died in the Las Vegas massacre.

The investigation of the shooter is massively beside the point.

It doesn’t matter whether this man was mentally ill or just outrageously angry. What matters is that one man could so easily gather so many weapons of so great lethal power.

The founders of this nation wrote a Second Amendment with muskets in mind. We need to rewrite it with Las Vegas in mind, with Orlando in mind, with the twenty first-graders of Sandy Hook in mind, with so many other American slaughter fields in mind. You don’t need a semi-automatic weapon to bag your doe; you don’t need tracer ammo and incendiary rounds to protect your family.

Now is the time for what some in government leadership keep calling for: Repeal and Replace.

Repeal and Replace, for every person whose bullet had been made with their name on it this awful October.

For Heather.

For Austin.

For Bill.

For Charleston.

For Rhonda.

For Adrian.

For Kurt.

For Jenny.

For Brennan.

For Brian.

For Jessica.

For Victor.

For Neysa.

For Christopher.

For Brett.

For Angela.

For Jack.

For Cameron.

For Thomas.

For Calla.

For Jordan.

For Pati.

For Jordyn.

For Carrie.

For Lisa.

For Christiana.

For Michelle.

For Denise.

For Dana.

For Sandy.

For Rachael.

For Rocio.

For Tara.

For Quinton.

For Keri.

For Denise.

For Bailey.

For Chris.

For Dorene.

For Candice.

For Susan.

For Steve.

For Derrick.

For Carly.

For Hannah.

For Carrie.

For Laura.

For John.

For Nicol.

For Jennifer.

For Erick.

For Austin.

For Andrea.

For Kelsey.

For Stacee.

For Melissa.

For Sonny.

For Lisa.

For all the dead, of all the shootings. For all the living, whose names are yet to be written on the bullets made for them.