Let me first set the record straight. I am a firm believer in the Second Amendment and also think that the SCOTUS was correct about individual ownership of firearms.
That said, what happened in Aurora, Colorado early this morning was a horrible thing, and has to be the furthest thing from any of the Founders' minds when they penned that Amendment.
The thing about this conundrum is that yes, the Founders did indeed intend to allow Americans to own firearms, and I think the right wingers are right that the purpose was to allow us to be able to resist an oppressive government. After all, they'd just finished doing just that, and it had to be fresh on their minds, as many of them were strong opponents of strong central governments. These facts are well documented.
But.
I also doubt that the Founders imagined anything like automatic weapons, machine guns, tanks, anti-aircraft missiles (or the aircraft they are designed to destroy) or any of the other weapons of mass destruction we have at our disposal today. I'd like to think that they'd have rethought that amendment had they known.
But they did give us the wherewithal to amend that Amendment, in recognition that times change, people change and technology marches on.
And I think it is time to rethink the Second Amendment. I don't pretend to know how, but something must be done.
And no, I don't think it was because our country is any less religious than in the past!
No comments:
Post a Comment