Retired Marine: Repeal the Second Amendment
I THINK that there are good and honest men and women within the Democratic and Republican caucuses of the House and Senate who could come together to address the shameful profiteering by gun manufacturers in America at the cost of the lives of her children and innocent people of all ages. I will not see the repeal of the Second Amendment to the Constitution in my lifetime. This is a tragedy. But it is important to at least try to tell the truth.
Our founding fathers, with their single-shot, flint-lock muskets and pistols, never envisioned an AR-15 rifle. I am sure that they would have been astonished by its power, accuracy and firing rate; in effect, by its deadliness and danger to the public. I cannot logically understand why we should have a sacred right to own and use this murderous weapon of war but not have a constitutional right to “bear” and use a shoulderfired grenade-launcher capable of destroying a car, or a shoulder-fired, light anti-tank rocket-launcher capable of destroying a small house.
I understand that there are Americans who are ardent and even fanatical with regard to their right to own and use weapons of war. I suspect that the majority of these people never volunteered to serve in the military in time of war, or actively evaded that service when it was still legally required of them. But to those other less-committed gun owners who say they use these weapons for “recreation,” please give them up. Weapons of war should not be considered “sporting goods” and they’re not “recreational.”
Repeal the Second Amendment.
DR. R.J. BREWER U.S.M.C. (Ret.) 1969-1972 Albuquerque