2nd Amendment is outdated

I respond to the Tuesday letter "Evil hearts are the problem" from Ted Angel, who said it is a “constitutional right to own firearms — no restrictions enumerated — for our safety and recreational use.” That assertion, although validated more or less via a political decision made by an activist rightwing Supreme Court that ignored original intent, is simply false.

The Second Amendment does have “restrictions enumerated,” a phrase also totally ignored by the rightwingers: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State...” The “original intent,” validated by history that the right-wingers once again totally ignored, was that a citizen militia, which had, at best, a mixed record in the revolutionary war, could somehow stand up to a repressive government, such as, then, Great Britain.

It is total nonsense now when even the poorest government on earth has access to advanced weapons, and many governments, including every level of U.S. government, has access to weapons of war, from rifles and tanks, to airplanes and helicopter gunships, to atomic bombs, that anyone with a handgun or even the infamous AR-15 could ever successfully oppose those governments in an armed conflict.

The Second Amendment never was and still is not about “our safety and recreational use.” The amendment is, in fact, a historical anachronism.