The Second Amendment

The Second Amendment reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Reading the Second Amendment, it’s hard for some of us to ignore the fact that the amendment’s primary direction is about the formation of a “well Regulated” militia which has at its disposal arms (or in today’s parlance The National Guard) to safeguard the security of a young United States of America that does not yet have a standing army. The paranoids in the National Rifle Association leadership are busy today (12-14-2012) once again making their standard case for unregulated gun owner ship in the cold cruel light of the deaths of kindergarten children and adults in an elementary school in Newtown CT. We continue to hear from the NRA after each tragedy - UT Austin, Columbine, Colorado movie theatre, Virginia Tech to name a few that we have enough laws protecting us against the misuse of guns and that we do not need any further regulation. I guess we are supposed to forget about and deal with the deaths and carnage of our children at these schools and move on. After all the NRA reads the Second Amendment as every man, woman and child in the USA has the constitutional right to own a gun. Any gun can be bought without any regulation, test or proof that the person buying the gun is not insane, not a convicted killer, not an Al Qaeda terrorist. The NRA does not want background checks because they say that gun control (regulation) is the slippery slope to gun confiscation. In fact, John Ashcroft George W Bush’s first Attorney General after 9/11 would not let the FBI run the names of known terrorist against list of national gun purchases; that make you feel safe? Perhaps Ashcroft’s sanity should be questioned… How many American parents have lost a child to the world’s crappiest gun regulation? This country spends six billion dollars a year on medical treatment of gunshot wounds. The words a well regulated militia are no accident. Our forefathers knew a bunch of unregulated armed yahoos is a dangerous situation. They put the words well regulated in the amendment. Congress knows what has to be done but lack of testicular fortitude among many on the right (in both parties) guarantees no change. It is more important for these cowards to secure the approval of the NRA in order to be reelected than to keep the children of the people they represent safe. I think the people need a test: If the candidate who wants your vote supports unregulated gun ownership don’t vote for them. We all have a hand in making this problem go away.