Amendment outdated

Dec. 15, 1791: That’s the date the Second Amendment became law. George Washington was serving his first term as America’s first president. At that specific moment in history, the Kentucky long rifle was about the most sophisticated “firing” weapon available for military or hunting purposes. How many of you knew that?

The Second Amendment was a time-sensitive, historically provoked amendment enacted just 15 years after our country confronted a British army whose goal was to use deadly force to kill our fragile, young democratic experiment. In 1791, the Second Amendment was critically important. It was timely, relevant and essential to this country’s survival.

That was 227 years ago.

I believe the exigent circumstances that provoked the writing and adoption of the Second Amendment are the only circumstances that explain and justify why we have the Second Amendment in the first place. Times have changed. Circumstances have changed. Justification and any reasonable defense for our Second Amendment became outdated a long time ago along with the Kentucky long rifle. It’s obvious the Second Amendment was written and adopted to support one’s right of self-defense within the historical context of one’s right to resist oppression.

(For the record: My wife and I own handguns [no long rifles] and we have carry permits. We are not NRA members and never will be for a multitude of reasons, all of which are best articulated by the new, young advocates for gun control rising like a tsunami nationwide following the Parkland, Fla., massacre.)

Unchecked and unmodernized, the existence of the Second Amendment at this moment in history is tantamount to bestowing upon all Americans the right of insurrection, anarchy and mass murder. HARRY HERGET

Little Rock