Think about the words
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Editor,
With all the talk about the 2nd amendment, you’d think there might be more about what the words actually mean. Do they mean one thing to legal scholars and another to most Americans? “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.”
Was the 18-year-old Texas kid who murdered the school children and two teachers in Uvalde part of a “well-regulated militia?” Do folks who walk up to gun counters all over the U.S. and purchase semi-automatics capable of pumping out bullets at a rate of 30 rounds in 18 seconds, belong to well-regulated militias? I don’t, and I own several firearms, and have for most of my near 80 years. What do these words mean?
Is the first part of the phrase really connected to the second? Have guns in this country really helped with the security of the U.S.? Tell me how? I’d say they threaten the security of this country on a daily basis, not the other way around. Why aren’t we talking about this “security” issue, as the framers obviously intended to create a secure state and most of us would prefer living in one. When I was growing up in the ‘40s and ‘50s, it seemed quite secure. I didn’t have to wear a bullet proof backpack to class, didn’t have to train what to do if a killer got onto our school grounds. It was never even thought of. That’s the way it should be. We can turn it around and make it the way it used to be by electing people to congress and our state legislatures who will properly regulate the kind of arms sold. Period.
Eugene Beckes
St. Ignatius
