COMMUNITY VOICES: Know your history on Second Amendment

To the editor:

What all gun advocates are missing are history and the preamble to the Second Amendment:

1. History. When the American militia fought against the stifling rules of Britain they were volunteers who had to use their own guns and ammunition.

2. Preamble. I have copied this in bold letters just to make the point and then I copied the rest of the Amendment: “A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of the State, the right of the people to bear and keep arms shall not be infringed.”  What is meant by “well-regulated” is that there was a command structure similar to the rankings of the British army who directed the fighting, similar to the present National Guard. Since then we not only have the National Guard, but many other adjunct quasi-military entities including the Secret Service, FBI, etc, etc. 

It is one thing to bear and use weapons under a structured command and quite another to bear arms unnecessarily in public.

We need to grow up.

Varoujan Tourian
Hillsdale