THE SECOND AMENDMENT RE-VISITED, AGAIN

As you no doubt know, the Supreme Court is once again hearing a case regarding the second amendment. Chicago has a city ordinance which forbids owning handguns in the city. From the looks of things, that law doesn't seem to be working out too well for their murder rate, but I digress. Chicago, like other municipalities, has two problems. One is that their law breakers, especially those with gun offenses, are not sufficiently punished, and number two, you cannot fix your crime problem by violating the Constitutional rights of the law abiding people in your city. The National Rifle Association has sued Chicago to have that law overturned and that action has made its way to the Supreme Court.

 I recently was watching a hunting show on television and saw Chuck Norris come on with what was a public service announcement concerning the second amendment. Chuck's message loosely translated said that "Freedom is not about what government can do for us. Freedom is about keeping government from doing what it wants to us." Think about that for a moment. The second amendment guarantees us the right to keep (own) and bear (carry, have in our possession) arms (guns, knives, etc.). The reason for the amendment and those rights is not necessarily to go hunting or even to protect us from home intruders. No, that right to own guns is about protecting us from our own government. The reason our government is accountable to the citizens is not only because of free elections. One of the main accountabilities is that the citizenry is armed. That is also one of the primary reasons foreign nations don't attack us. They know we are all armed and will repel any such attack.

I know there is a large group of people who are afraid of guns. They see guns as evil. The fact is that there are far more people killed or injured by automobiles than guns in this country, and yet there doesn't seem to be this inexplicable fear of automobiles. Guns, in the hands of a law abiding citizen, are no more dangerous than a hammer or a screw driver. A hammer or a screw driver in the hands of a homicidal killer are at least as dangerous as a gun. Guns, like hammers and screw drivers are just tools. When used for their proper purpose, they are completely benign. As we all know it is the killer not the tools he uses that are the problem. I believe this group of people who fear guns have bought into the propaganda of the left that wants to disarm America so that they can go about their plan to change this country into the socialist utopia that they imagine. Another thing I heard recently is that apathy is the enemy of freedom. To those among you who fear guns, do us all a favor and stay away from them. I for one do not want anyone who has this fear to have a weapon in their possession. They are already unstable enough.

In the far out event that you are not familiar with the language of the second amendment to the Constitution, it reads as follows, "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." As you can see there is no ambiguity here. There are no hidden messages. This is as clear as our language. If this right is inconvenient for you, then I would recommend you taking up residence in a country where no such right exists, such as China, or Iran, or maybe Venezuela.

I will leave you then with this final thought. I believe it was Ben Franklin who said, and I will paraphrase,  those who sacrifice freedom in order to gain security wind up with neither.

Ron Scarbro October 5, 2009