Well, that's what it says, but what does it mean? Some folks thing it means we can and should have lots of guns and the deadlier the better. Others think it's all about providing for state militias and police forces. These differing ideas about our constitution need to be resolved before the pro-gun folks end up in a shoot-out with the state militias.
This last week should give us some ideas about what happens when we leave these questions unresolved. Cop killing and civilians killed by cops is not what the founders of our country were thinking of when they wrote The Constitution and The Bill of Rights. They were worried about the intersection of the rights of individuals and the needs of all of us for safety and security in our homes and persons.
If we leave safety and security in the hands of state bureaucracies we abdicate our responsibilities as members of a democracy. On the other hand, if we allow those with the most guns and ammo free reign we may all die in the shoot-out. Let's have a conversation please. I do understand the worry of bureaucratic overreach, after all I lived through the Red Scare of the Fifties. I also worry about the fact that an entire nations worth of guns is in the hands of less than a third of its citizens.
Here's my opinion: First we need to revitalize the democratic process by getting corporate money out and providing for truly universal suffrage. Secondly military weapons have no place in our homes unless we approve universal military service and allow weapons for active reservists. Third, until police forces learn how to use restraint we restrict their use of force to non-lethal methods. Lastly we need a mandatory gun buy-back program.
Those are my ideas. What are yours.
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