The Right to Keep andBear Arms

The second amendment to the Constitution of the United States:
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.

Have you ever read the messages on the pro-gun Web sites? It is enough to chill your bones. They are sure that the President is trying to "get your guns". Immediately following the election and actually for days before there were long lines of people outside the gun shops and the gun shows frantically buying guns because they were being told that the President was going to come and take them away from them! Many people have large arsenals in their basements and car trunks, and attics to ward off the "gun taker boogie-man".

A few months ago there were three or four mass murders, and thousands of individual murders, many of them by teens, that happen every day. Quite a few police were shot and killed, even a few in our area, but many others across the country. One of the killers in Pennsylvania that killed three police officers and wounded one other was said to have slept with a gun under his pillow in a basement filled with various firearms and ammunition because he believed that the Jews controlled the media and that the President was scheming to take away his guns! I knew a woman that boasted of her husband's arsenal and laughingly said, " He's going to be ready if the 'little black folks' try to get to us."

A few people that are well known enough that they are featured on television news shows have advocated all college students and faculty should have the right to carry guns, that all teachers and faculty members in high schools should carry guns. ( Think how that would liven up the keg parties in college!) Just this past weekend a local pastor invited all of his parishioners to bring their guns to church. They were not allowed to bring LOADED guns. Sort of a Barney Fife type gathering. The pastor, of course, got his 15 minutes of fame on all the news shows and postulated about how much safer we would all be if we could all 'carry'.

I do not claim to be an anti-gun nut. Both my father and my husband were hunters for a brief period of time. My dad put food on our table during the Great Depression years. He had a double barrel shot gun. It was only used for hunting. Doc had a shot gun and he also hunted food for us to eat. He was never a very enthusiastic hunter, I think he enjoyed eating pheasant and rabbit and being out with a few friends but that is as far as it went. He gave it up after just a few trips. My great-uncles had guns on their farms to ward off the foxes and other animals that would kill some of their stock. However, I never saw those guns because they were only brought to the fore in the event of some definite threat to the stock.

The deer population in this part of the country had reached the point that they needed to be thinned out and hunters were invited to help decrease the number. In parts of the country coyotes, bear, deer, wolves and other animals were creeping closer and closer to urban areas and it became necessary to decrease their number too. We have encroached on their natural habit ates to the point that they have to come in to forage for food. Good reasons to have guns.

Nevertheless, it does not take an AK-47 or an Uzi or an automatic rifle, or any powerful hand gun to protect the property of the citizens. We do have an armed force of men in every city and county in this country. The hand guns that are in the hands of the types of people that would shoot a person over an athletic game outcome, or because his brother wouldn't give him computer time, or because of a dispute over who got the last pork chop, these guns should be taken away. There are supposed to be background checks and proof of sound minds etc. before a licence is issued, but somehow or other I don't think the present laws are working.

Just as the banks and money lenders and financial people got out of control because of the lack of regulations, I fear that the same thing is happening with the gun enthusiasts. They don't want firmer regulations because they resent them and think their rights are being violated. Well, what about all of the people that are shot and killed by hand guns, what about their rights? How many people are shot because their home or life or life of a family member are being threatened by a criminal? Most of the people that are shot by handguns are shot by either jealous lovers, drunken spouses, drug deals gone bad, money or just pure cussedness. The guns are not used to protect their homes or loved ones they are used to fulfill the purpose of the gun. To kill some living thing. They are used to settle arguments.

We need more stringent rules and regulations regarding guns! But alas, its like the genie out of the bottle, what's to be done about all of the illegal and ill gotten guns that are already out there?

Woe is us!