Letter: The 2nd amendment – a different perspective

Posted 3/26/21

I am also a gun owner, veteran and a naval war college graduate, but I disagree with Bill Bullard’s singular argument that the sole purpose for the 2 nd Amendment was to ensure the nation had a …

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Letter: The 2nd amendment – a different perspective

Posted

I am also a gun owner, veteran and a naval war college graduate, but I disagree with Bill Bullard’s singular argument that the sole purpose for the 2nd Amendment was to ensure the nation had a well-armed and regulated citizenry to defend the nation against foreign aggressors. I believe our Founding Fathers were significantly more prescient and farsighted than Mr. Bullard is willing to give them credit.

I agree with the Founding Fathers’ decision to include the 2nd Amendment among the Constitution’s BILL OF RIGHTS, which codifies some of those inalienable rights by which WE THE PEOPLE have been endowed by our Creator.

The fact of the matter is that many of our Founding Fathers were fearful of having a strong standing army. I believe it was that concern that prompted them to add the prefatory language that provided one purpose to the amendment – “a well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state …”

The Supreme Court, in the case of Heller v. DC, held that that part of the amendment disagrees with Mr. Bullard’s singular argument that the sole purpose for the 2nd Amendment was to ensure the nation had a well-armed and regulated citizenry to defend the nation against foreign aggressors. The rest of the language was operative and, thus, the most important part of the amendment – “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

In that same Supreme Court decision, the majority held that the amendment afforded every citizen the God given individual right of self-defense. Such a right, by which we are all endowed by our Creator, exists independent of the passage of time, a strong national army and national guard or advanced technology.

I might add that that this right to keep and bear arms that provides for every citizen’s right of self-defense is a God given right. It is not a privilege granted by the government. The government has no power or authority to deny WE THE PEOPLE the right of self-defense. Thus, the government must exercise great care when enacting any legislation that may infringe on the citizens’ right of self-defense.

There is also the view expressed by many and often attributed to Thomas Jefferson that another purpose of the 2nd Amendment is for the citizenry to have the means to protect itself against a tyrannical government that becomes unworthy and underserving of the support of WE THE PEOPLE.

So, it needs to be said that notwithstanding Mr. Bullard’s myopic and erroneous reasoning

that our 2nd  Amendment has outlived its singular purpose of creating armed citizenry capable of defending the nation, there is still and always will be good and compelling reason for supporting our 2nd Amendment.

Law-abiding gun owners have every reason to support our 2nd Amendment and aggressively resist the efforts of those gun control enthusiasts who are seriously mistaken in their belief that the gun is the cause of violence rather than merely the instrument.

Peter Hewett
Bristol

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