America's gun laws: madness sanctioned by history [View all]

[SecularMotion]

Gun ownership in the United States is, of course, protected by the Second Amendment to the Constitution, enacted in 1791 as part of the so-called Bill of Rights.

The relevant clause reads in its entirety: “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.”

The Founders, who had recently come through the War of Independence, were understandably anxious to defend the infant republic against all comers. They did not intend that, as in the Wild West, citizens should be ready to answer any slight with an armed confrontation that ended with one or more of the participants lying dead in the street. Nor – unlike the U.S. gun lobby – were they suggesting that the entire audience at the cinema in Aurora should have been packing – and if they were, then they must surely have anticipated that James Holmes would have opened proceedings with a [legally held] bazooka or even a chain gun mounted on his Hummer.

It astonishes me that so many Americans see the Second Amendment as giving them carte blanche to walk the streets with an arsenal more appropriate to Special Forces in the field than peace-loving, law-abiding citizens in their own country. But they do. To them, the occasional murderous rampage that kills their loved ones (or preferably someone else’s loved ones) is the price they pay for freedom. It’s too bad, but, hey, waddygonnado?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/walterellis/100173224/americas-gun-laws-madness-sanctioned-by-history/