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.
This is the wording of the second amendment.
Can you find the flaws?
We no longer have Free states. All our states are organized under the United States of America and are defended by our military. It would appear that if one states was to attack the US Govt or another state, it would be soundly defeated by the US military.
A constitutional convention is in the midst of being formed. Once enough states are willing to come together to make the revisions to our constitution which are more relevant to today’s life circumstances, we can have a functional constitution. The idea that a document written 200 years ago would be relevant and helpful to manage today’s problems is nonsensical. Although the basic tenets are important, it needs to be overhauled to meet today’s challenges.
In the meanwhile, I think we can agree that the second amendment guns back then were single shot. They do not included cannons. So we can stay within the confines of the second amendment for the guns enthusiast by allowing single shot weapons. Rifles, pistols. No automatic weapons.
In addition, just like with automobiles which we realized in the 20th century can provide harm to others, these weapons need to be registered, insured for harm to others and the owners need to pass a test to operate them.
Military style weapons capable of firing many rounds of bullets which are used ONLY for mass murder need to be banned for individual ownership.
If someone currently owns this weapon, they need to either sell it back to the gun manufacture for a complete refund or stored it and insure it for $1 million dollars each so that if it is ever used to harm an individual, that money will be available to compensate those persons or their family. I hope the premium would be so large, that the owner would choose the first option.
In addition, gun manufacturers in the US are now prohibited from providing these weapons to anyone other than US govt. If any govt official gives or sells these weapons to an individual owner, they penalty would be a large fine of $1 million dollars and 10 years in prison for both the seller and the owner.
I think this covers it.
If you want a rifle for hunting or a hand gun for personal protection okay. Single shot. No automatic weapons.
Jo-Ann Marks, MA, LMFT
Tucson