The Gun Issue

The Second Amendment states that “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.” The NRA likes to ignore the part about the “well regulated militia” and focus only on the part that says “shall not be infringed.” What the framers of the Constitution surely had in mind, speaking of the “security of a free state,” was the possible intrusion of British or other foreign forces. As time has passed, the concept of a militia has been replaced by the concept of a National Guard. A militia was a well armed citizenry that was ready to come together in defense of the country. The National Guard is an organization of volunteer citizens who train together and stand ready to act in the interests of the state or nation. And the National Guard can indeed be called into action in situations where the national security seems threatened. People in the Guard are trained and “well regulated” and leave their military style weapons and other equipment in the Guard facility.

The Second Amendment says nothing about keeping and bearing arms for the purpose of hunting, home protection, marksmanship, or merely collecting. But American tradition clearly includes shotguns and rifles for hunting as well as hand guns of various sorts for self defense. Rural Americans have grown up hunting and do so with little formal training. Urbanized Americans hunt for a mixture of reasons and most likely need training. (In California one cannot get a hunting license without passing a hunter’s safety course.) I do not believe there has been any significant movement to take away hunting equipment; although there is certainly a movement that speaks against “trophy hunting” and for good reasons. (I have an article about hunting published on Amazon’s Kindle.)

The issue of hand guns is a rather different matter however. Hand guns can easily be concealed. They can be brought out quickly and they can be deadly at close range. Hand guns are of little use in hunting and their main use is against other human beings. The NRA likes to say that “a good guy with a gun is the one sure way of dealing with a bad guy with a gun.” What this brings to mind is the American Wild West where everyone was toting a gun and there was so much violence that towns ultimately began restricting guns. Hand guns are susceptible to accidental use and are all too available when people are angry or drunk. By far the majority of gun related deaths in this country are involved with hand guns.

Now enter military style assault weapons. Their sole purpose is to kill lots of people very fast. Perhaps that is desirable on a military stage but it has no place in a domestic scene. In spite of the NRA, that good guy with the gun doesn’t really stand a chance against someone with an assault weapon. So the whole thing escalates. That good guy better have an assault weapon too. So we should put these into schools? Enough of them so that there’s a real barrier against assault? First of all, any person in the military or in the police force will tell you that working a hand gun or an assault weapon effectively requires significant training. And actually confronting another person who is armed and dangerous is not just a simple matter of holding a weapon of your own. And actually shooting another person is not easy, nor is the aftermath pleasant.

Virtually none of the rights bestowed on us in our Bill of Rights are unlimited. Speech is free so long as you don’t abuse it by standing up in an airplane and yelling “highjack” or “bomb.” Assembly is free but you better get permits from the city if you plan to do it in public. The press is free but you are not free to defame someone. Only the NRA seems to think that the right to our weapons is unlimited; even most NRA members seem to agree that limitations are justified.

I have a hunting license because I did go through hunter safety training and I am glad that I did. I think that people who want to have hand guns should register them, insure them, and receive training on how to handle and store them. We do as much for driving a car. Personally, I think that assault weapons should remain within the military domain and should not be available to the general public.