A Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor:
With all of the dialog about guns, rights, Constitutional Amendments, and fear-mongering (on both sides of the equation), I am hoping that the American media will use this as an opportunity to educate the public as to the facts about the Second Amendment.
Then:
· When Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, wrote the Second Amendment (1791), the United States had no standing army. If the United States needed to defend itself, it required the use of force which, by default, would have been in the hands of its citizens only.
· When Jefferson wrote the Bill of Rights (which contains the Second Amendment), he urged their review, and possible revision, every twenty years.
· The War of Independence (Revolutionary War) ended in 1783. This was still fresh in the minds and hearts of Americans. Without the right to own arms, the war could not have been fought, much less won.
· The United States was a largely agrarian nation where the ability to call for help in the event of an emergency was virtually impossible. Coupled with the expansionist character of the nation at this time, guns would have been a necessity for basic protection and for expansion of the nation.
Now:
· Not only do we have a standing army (and navy, and marines), but it is the strongest and most sophisticated in the history of this planet.
· The United States is predominantly an urban culture with immediate communication potential in the event of an emergency. Further, we have a ubiquitous police force available.
· We have no new territories or peoples to conquer and (sadly) few wild animals we need to protect ourselves from.
When I was a teenager, I was told that owning a driver’s license was a privilege, not a right. Perhaps it’s time to employ the same enlightened thinking about guns. Surely guns are more lethal than cars. Owning them should be a privilege – not a right – scrutinized regularly, and with regular dues, just like driving a car. If we insist on keeping the term “rights” when discussing guns, let’s go ahead and take this to its furthest extreme just for the sake of argument: Would anyone say that each citizen has the right to own an atomic bomb? And if not, why not? It seems to me that owning a gun is just a microcosmic version of owning an atomic bomb.
So, I return to my original question: Will the American media have the courage to take an honest look at the Second Amendment? Never mind who can shout the loudest, who is influenced the most (positively or negatively) by the NRA, who fears re-election disaster, etc. Let’s be grown-up here and calmly look at the history of the use of armaments in this nation. What might our founding Fathers have envisioned?