The Second Amendment

The founding fathers, as they are so often called, who wrote the Constitution of the United States of America, were good and bright fellows, but they were not infallible and the results they produced came after considerable debate and compromise.
by Charlie Leck

Just imagine if the guys who put our constitution together in this nation hadn’t been worried about how to put a militia together quickly in case continuing battles had to be fought against Britain or domestic uprisings. The new government wanted to have a nearly instant army available and armed in case of some unforeseen need to defend the nation.

“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.”

Keep in mind that a militia is defined as a body registered for military service.

The second amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America has caused enormous debate and discomfort in modern life. Several weeks ago teenage boys on the north side of Minneapolis were firing pistols into homes in retaliation for shots being fired into their homes. One result was the death of a five year old child. This wasn’t some statistical child. He had a name (Nizzel George) and he had parents (Cornelius George, his father, and a grieving grandmother with whom the boy was staying) and he had a future. Witnesses saw two very young men fire on the house with handguns.

Why did the young fellows fire on the house? One of them said that he believed people “associated” with the address had fired on another address with which he was associated.

Oh, my! Guns in America will be one of the dark and mournful chapters written in the history of the United States by future scholars.

And to think that all this looseness and wildness with guns comes about as a result of a misunderstanding of the second amendment to our constitution. The constitution was so amended (along with nine other amendments that form our Bill of Rights) and ratified by the states on 15 December 1791. I’ll bet that neither the author of the amendments (introduced by James Madison to the very first Congress) never dreamed that we could become such a gun society.

And sadly, the National Rifle Association has become so powerful in America that no one even thinks of challenging the modern reading and interpretation of the amendment.

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