Hinojosa draws a blank on Second Amendment(TX)

McALLEN — Asked Wednesday about the Second Amendment, longtime U.S. Rep. Rubén Hinojosa fumbled for an answer.

“There are so many people in Washington who come and talk to us about the Constitution and the rights that they want kept sacred and that not do anything about them. (sic) That we not change them. That we not amend them,” said Hinojosa. “And I can tell you that — I’m drawing a blank on the Second Amendment, but I think it’s the weapons, isn’t it? The NRA?”

Hinojosa recovered after a brief pause, recalling how the 1999 Columbine High School massacre convinced him America needs stronger background checks at weekend gun shows and that he supports more restrictive gun laws.

“And especially those machine guns. Why in the hell do we have to have machine guns? And don’t touch that, because NRA will come and put you on the black list,” Hinojosa said. “Well, I didn’t go up there to be Mr. Popular. I went up there to do the right thing. To help our community. To protect them.”

Hinojosa spoke Wednesday at a political debate hosted by the McAllen Rotary Club, which drew about 50 people to the Salvation Army building, 1600 N. 23rd St. The 72-year-old Democrat from Mercedes is running for a ninth term against Republican challenger Dale Brueggemann, a businessman from Seguin.

It seems to me that in many states with a strong ethnic Mexican population, a Spanish and English language pamphlet about the importance of the Second Amendment to them in particular would “plant some good seeds in good soil.”

The reasons for this begin in Mexico, which has a confusing gun control regime, leading most Mexicans to think that guns are banned, or should be banned, as criminal tools.

The “right to keep and bear arms” was first recognized as a Mexican constitutional right in 1857.

However, as part of the Mexican Constitution of 1917, it was split into two parts: the right to keep, and the right to bear. This specified that citizens were entitled to keep arms, but may only bear them among the population in accordance with police regulations.

This also dictated that the law would stipulate which weapons were reserved for the armed forces, including law enforcement agencies, for being considered “weapons of war”, which removed many calibers from legal private ownership.

Then, in 1971, the constitution was changed again, to limit the right keep arms within the home only, and reserved the right to bear arms outside the home only to those explicitly authorized by law.

Shortly thereafter, in 1972, the Federal Law of Firearms and Explosives came into force and gave the federal government complete jurisdiction and control to the legal proliferation of firearms in the country; at the same time, heavily limiting and restricting the legal access to firearms by civilians.

As a result of these changes, openly carrying a firearm or carrying a concealed weapon in public is virtually forbidden to private citizens, unless explicitly authorized by the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA).

For purposes of personal protection, firearms are only permitted within the place of residence and of the (very limited) types and calibers permitted by law, that is, only smaller calibers, *not* used by the police or military.

Of course, the drug cartels and other criminals ignore these regulations and limits entirely.

In any event, being raised in a rather confusing, anti-gun culture like Mexico means that ethnic Mexicans have adapted, resulting in great fear of armed criminals and other cultural problems.

But to teach them the American rules, mostly to persuade them that guns are the tools of honest citizens, not just criminals, will pay dividends in teaching them that their self defense begins with them, not government, and that honest people vastly outnumber criminals and do not have to tolerate or obey them.

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