Second Amendment should be retained

Recently, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens publicly and stunningly proposed an idea that some people have been striving for years to achieve: He called for the repeal of the Second Amendment.

For starters, this probably would not make high school students any safer.

I doubt that the Parkland, Florida, high school shooter, who is facing murder charges, is remorseful that he violated a law about having a gun on school grounds.

If Justice Stevens were shipped to Mexico, he’d probably change his tune fast and be pleading for the right to bear arms.

Mexico has strict public gun control, but the gangs are frequently shooting people publicly in cities in broad daylight with little fear of police.

The U.S. State Department issued this statement regarding a Mexican border state: “Do not travel due to crime. Violent crime, such as murder, armed robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, extortion and sexual assault, is common. Gang activity, including gun battles, is widespread. Armed criminal groups target public and private passenger buses traveling through Tamaulipas, often taking passengers hostage and demanding ransom payments.

Local law enforcement has limited capability to respond to violence in many parts of the state.”

The bottom line is that we are tremendously better off to live in the U.S. with the Second Amendment right to bear arms than to live in Mexico without it.

Let’s be grateful for the extreme wisdom of our Founding Fathers and our freedoms and not risk making things much worse.

Rick Lalonde Amherst