LETTER Second Amendment needs to be updated
Second Amendment needs to be updated
As expected, the heated debate on firearms regulation has inflamed the news cycle. At the pinnacle of the argument is the manufacturing and ownership of semi-automatic rifles, with the AR-15 being the most common discussed. Of course, the Second Amendment of the Constitution is the basis for the defense of ownership of firearms by the populace. There are those who adhere to its strict interpretation. However, an examination of its text causes any reasonable person to question its necessity and validity in the 21st century. In fact, the text of the Second Amendment is only one sentence in length, being broken into three segments which support its original intent.
“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.”
Supporters of the right to “keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” only quote, and argue for, the final segment of the sentence, while they ignore and neglect the wording and meaning of the entire sentence. It is reasonable to deduce that state and local “militias” have fallen into obsolescence. When the Bill of Rights was adopted in 1791, there were valid reasons for citizen militias. They have long been superseded by police departments and national guard units. It can be argued that because the first segment of the sentence no longer has validity, the entire amendment is obsolete.
In our culture, we have a perceived need for the ownership of firearms for sport, hunting and self defense. Common sense dictates that these cherished beliefs will never change. The crux of the debate is the ownership of mass killing machines that no citizen reasonably needs for those activities. Thinking people believe that the Second Amendment is in dire need of an overhaul to bring the subject of firearms ownership into the 21st century. Our “right” to lawfully own sport, hunting and self defense weapons most assuredly and unquestionably needs to be established and protected, but the manufacturing and ownership of weapons of mass people killing must be outlawed. Democracies around the world regulate guns, preserve their freedoms and achieve firearm murder rates that are a tiny fraction of the rates we suffer. Only the U.S. has a political leadership that stands idly by while the nation’s citizens are senselessly slaughtered.
No one has any valid need to own people-killing, military weapons of any grade and type!
Ronald J. Yamka
Canonsburg