Support the full Second Amendment

This is one of the most important sentences in our history: “A wellregulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.” It should be respected, and respect requires understanding the full scope of its language. Read it again: “a wellregulated Militia.” Our founders understood and desired the freedom for lawabiding citizens to bear arms, but the term “wellregulated” is not simply legal embellishment: they knew that safety meant regulating instruments of death as well as the right to bear protection.

So when corrupt politicians and powerful lobbies start making noise about the second half of the amendment, but never discuss the first, know that they are trying to take us for suckers. Omitting parts of the Constitution while taking other bits out of context is an explicit attempt to misguide by these selfish peddlers of fear. So do your duty as an American and practice the freedom that these con men despise the most: the freedom from fear.

Only fear is capable of selling assault rifles at such astronomical rates and put millions of dollars into the pockets of those who warp our founding documents into submission. And this mass, underregulated availability is partially what leads to tragedies like El Paso.

Of course, there are intertwined causes. The lack of affordable mental health care is a mess for a variety of reasons; the majority of us have at least one friend who comes to mind. The rejuvenation of white supremacy is perhaps the crowning achievement of contemporary unAmericanness: July 4, 1776, happened to decisively cleave from European nationalism, not to embrace it. But these are more abstract and difficult (although solvable!) problems.

So let’s start with the concrete, doitourselves attitude that makes us great and regulate instruments of death, as prescribed by our founders. Let’s make the freedom from fear to go shopping, go to work, go out for the night, go pray, and go to school a reality. Filip Dul, Bethany