Dear Editor:
I can no longer resist the temptation to weigh in on a highly controversial subject.
I have no quarrel with the intention of the Second Amendment, but I think it is fair to say that, as written, it is anachronistic.
As our forefathers recalled the clashes of the Minutemen with the British at Lexington and Concord and on Boston hill and the murderous Indian raids on the frontier, life without the musket was seen as an existential threat. Thus, the Second Amendment.
But our Founding Fathers were not omniscient. They can hardly be blamed for not foreseeing the creation of the National Guard that replaced the citizen militia or the development of assault-style weaponry.
The NRA and some of its members have created a straw man: a tyrannical government determined to confiscate our firearms. That will ;happen about the same time is decides to seize our bows and arrows and fishing rods.
The average citizen has an inalienable right to own a firearm to hunt game, for self-protection, or for his own enjoyment. But that does not apply to anyone with evil intentions.
A recent poll showed that 97 percent of Americans favored universal background checks, while nearly one in four said they had obtained their guns without a background check.
Regulation is not un-American even though it failed to save ten million buffalo;in the nineteenth century. It exists in every aspect of our lives. Isn’t it about time to close the loopholes at gunshows; and attempt to regulate person-to-person transfer of firearms?
Other common sense regulations involve keeping guns out of the hands of persons unfit to own them. The average person has no need for an AK or an AR or other weapons specifically designed to kill people. Bumpstocks should be outlawed; All semi-automatic should be confined to the military and law enforcement.
The president responded to the Parkland incident by suggesting we should not be afraid to stand up to the NRA ,but his bravado was soon replaced by sycophancy. He even made the preposterous; claim that the Democrats wanted to abolish the Second Amendment. We cannot expect any support from; that quarter. And Congress has hardly blinked.
One does not need to be a prophet to suggest that within a few weeks we will hear of another mass slaughter by a demented gunman.
Sincerely,
Bob Hall
Bellingham
