Veterans needed Second Amendment
Re “Military veterans” (Your Views, Feb. 3) and “Bill would allow younger military veterans to receive tax break” (Jan. 25): I’m writing about Tom Somma’s anti-veteran letter that our military veterans should not be encouraged to stay in Virginia as they will take the jobs away from civilians. Somma obviously has no idea about the talent that our military veterans provide to the commonwealth of Virginia, especially when so many people do not want to work. Veterans also spend money, which benefits our economy, and pay taxes. Don’t worry, the veterans will pay those high rents and mortgages just like you when they become civilians.
— Debbie McNulty, Chesapeake
Recent letters about the proliferation of guns are the stimulus for these thoughts. Between 1776 and 1789, Americans went from living under a sovereign king (the Colonies) to living in sovereign states (Articles of Confederation) to becoming a sovereign people (U.S. Constitution). This evolution defines the American Revolution.
Ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution were incorporated in 1791, and are often referred to as the Bill of Rights. The anti-standing army feelings of the leaders at the time — deeply seated fears and concerns of history’s lessons about standing armies and their presence in peacetime
(e.g. Julius Caesar and Oliver Cromwell) — persisted from the time of the Declaration of Independence for a number of decades and played a significant role in crafting the Second Amendment.
Hence America would continue to rely on raising militia from the states in order to defend itself from external and internal aggression. The resulting wording reflects the fears of the presence of a standing army in peacetime and the need to provide for a viable force when called on by Congress. For well over a century and a half — or longer — there has been a large standing army during peacetime.
Perhaps if the Second Amendment was written today, it might read: “In the absence of a standing army, and to maintain the security of a free state, people have the right to keep and bear arms in order to provide well-regulated militias to Congress.”
— John Calver, Newport News