1.         Right to sue.  Victims of gun violence shall have a right to sue in federal court, for all physical, mental, and economic damages resulting from such gun violence, any or all of the putative defendants listed in Section 2.

 2.         Putative defendants.  The following shall be liable to all victims of gun violence, whether or not negligent or at fault, as a matter of strict liability:  gun manufacturers, gun marketers, gun sellers, gun owners, whether or not such guns have been stolen or otherwise taken from their control with or without their consent, when the guns that they have manufactured, marketed, sold, or allowed out of their control have caused harm to any individual or individuals.

 3.         Right of self defense.  The only permissible defense to liability under this Act shall be if the defendant affirmatively establishes, by clear and convincing evidence, that the use of the gun in question was necessary to protect against an immediate and direct threat to human life.

 4.         Exemplary damages.  Upon a finding of liability and an award of compensatory damages, additional damages shall be awarded against such liable defendants in the amount of nine times compensatory damages awarded, regardless of fault.

For purposes of discussion, how about the following?

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution

 The 2nd Amendment is hereby annulled.  The Congress shall have the sole power, by appropriate legislation, to restrict, outlaw, or encumber the manufacture, marketing, sale, and ownership of firearms, other provisions of this Constitution notwithstanding. 

http://www.amazon.com/Gratest-Ezekiel-Grate-Adventure-ebook/dp/B009FFYP5W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1357644467&sr=8-2&keywords=i+am+the+grates

To listen to the gun lobby, one would think that there’s only one right, the right to have as many guns, with whatever lethality and speed of fire, as can be invented and purchased. If a gun can be invented that would escape all detectors, NRA members would say everyone has a right to own that too.  If a gun could be invented that could kill 100 people at the same time, with one pull of the trigger, there’d be a right to own that too.  The answer to guns is always more guns.  Put armed guards around every school.  Put armed guards around every mall, every church and synagogue, every workplace, every public building.  Put concealed weapons into the hands of every neighborhood patroller.  Train everyone so that when they choose to shoot, they will hit and kill their targets.  When a tragedy occurs, it’s not the fault of the guns.  More guns would have meant less death, we’re told.

Come on, America.  Why does this mythical right outweigh everyone else’s right to live in a sane and safe society?  Why does it outweigh the right of a six-year-old child to live his or her life to its natural completion? 

Oh, they are so sorry when tragedy occurs.  It’s someone else’s fault, however.  Don’t look at them!  They didn’t pull the trigger, did they?

The tragedies mount.  In a matter of seconds, precious life has been torn apart, riddled with bullet holes.  Terror strikes and cannot be understood.  Whether it happens in a kindergarten or a high school or at a movie theater or at a religious shrine or in a mall or at a workplace or at a political gathering, it’s the same thing.  The perpetrators get their hands on semi-automatic weapons somehow, legally or illegally.  The weapons are there for the taking, and in the warped minds of those who want to kill the weapons start it all, providing visions of massive destruction, each warped mind wanting to outdo the carnage of the ones who have come before.  Guns breed violence.  They create mental pictures of bodies strewn about on floors flooding with blood.  When turned on oneself, the gun promises an end to the pains of life and an avoidance of responsibility for one’s actions. 

 But we’re told that, because of the Second Amendment, there must be no restrictions whatsoever on gun manufacture, sale, or ownership.  The gun enthusiasts believe, in my opinion, that God has granted a right to own whatever type of gun one wants to own, and the Second Amendment is only a reflection of what God Himself has granted.  I beg to differ.

 There’s nothing absolute about the Bill of Rights.  There’s nothing absolute about what people believed were their rights when the Constitution was drafted.  Case in point: the Founding Fathers believed that slavery was appropriate and that slave owners had a right to the services of their slaves.  Yet, the time came for the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery. 

 The concept of rights must evolve if we are not to be burdened with doctrines of a past long gone.  So let’s include in our discussions about what to do about mass slaughter by semi-automatic weapons whether it’s time to abolish or substantially modify the Second Amendment.  Let’s go back to the beginning.  We’re creating the kind of society we want our children and grandchildren to live in.  We take the pen in our hands.

        As I turned to hold you
        Under a black sun
        Whose gloom blanketed us
        With the weight of death
      
        I still heard your sweet breath
        Still smelled your hair and
        Sucked into me your scent
        To keep us as one
      
        I still felt your side’s sway
        The wisps of hair which
        I pressed to one last time
        One last memory
      
        As I turned to hold you
        You were not yet gone
        But you had no way to say
        You still felt my warmth

First published in in EpiphanyMag, Poetry No. 17

That’s a question I’ve been asking myself lately.  I’m working on a new novel, which focuses on a brother/sister relationship, a piano prodigy, a schizophrenic mother, a guilt-ridden father, a conniving committee, and who knows what else before it’s all done. Keeps me up at night thinking about what bad things might happen to characters I love. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I’d also like to write a sequel to “I Am the Gratest,” and would also like to — need to — revise my previous novel, the one I alternatively call “Displaced” or “1946: A Novel.”  How do I create enough time in the day to do all that and maintain my career as a lawyer?

The question itself suggests the obvious answer, i.e., if it’s clear that too many things are on the burners, move some of them off for a while.  Yet, it’s not that simple.  The creative urge cannot be easily chopped into pieces such that some of them are ignored while the rest get to play.  So I will accept that I have an inner need to pursue a lot of projects simultaneously.  I will tell myself that it’s not healthy to fight that inner need.  With luck, the projects will emerge when and as they can.

I have just published “Dear Grandpa and Other Stories.”  What happens when a recent widower feels he has no further reason to live, but then decides …???

http://www.amazon.com/Dear-Grandpa-Other-Stories-ebook/dp/B00988NA3Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348526740&sr=8-1&keywords=dear+grandpa+and+other+stories

Oh, you didn’t perceive that’s what I’d done?  Please read “Eagles’ Wings” again, keeping in mind the horrific possibility that the events depicted therein may come to pass some day too soon.  We pray that they don’t.

Does this poem try to turn into heroes the pilots who might be called upon to undertake such a mission?  Perhaps so, but that is not its primary intent.  Leaving aside the question of whether Israel would be right or wrong in committing such an act in its self defense, i.e., its fight against extermination at the hands of Iran, the poem attempts to explore, however briefly, what it might be like for a soldier to have to say goodbye to all one’s loved ones, knowing that the mission is one from which the pilot can never return, and yet keep secret the nature of the mission.  Is it possible to capture such a unique — hopefully hypothetical — moment in a poem?  That’s what I’ve aimed to explore.

As always, your criticism is welcome and valued.

He faced twelve pilots poised to deliver/ A blast such as the world had never known/ Volunteered for the slaying of Aram/ The trip from which no pilot would return

They circled him, intent, their crisp light blue shirts/ Ironed as if before a state dinner/ The dark blue Stars of David pointing out/ To every direction of the compass.

Each had said his goodbye and yet had not/ None could confess the mission upon them/ Just one last hug, one tighter embrace, and /One more wild promise to love forever