Letters to the Editor

Americans may interpret the Second Amendment in several different ways, but our Supreme Court has only one interpretation. As demonstrated earlier this year in D.C. v. Heller, the Supreme Court affirmed that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to possess a firearm for private use.

It is worth noting that this is the second right our forefathers ensured us when they penned our Bill of Rights. Immediately following freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of press, and freedom of assembly, the very next concern on our Founding Fathers minds was the right to keep and bear arms.
These first two amendments are undoubtedly the two most important and the very foundation on which our country stands. They are the basic rights afforded to a free people. Why then, was the right to own and carry a gun so pertinent to our new nation? Even a vague understanding of American history reveals the answer.

The colonies had been oppressed for years by the unjust government of Great Britain and hence rebelled. These grievances were fresh on the mind of the Constitution's framers at the end of the war and were thus very careful not to give their own federal government too much power. They asserted that our government could never disarm its people.
This principle was strongly held; as stated by the Father of the Bill of Rights, George Mason, "To disarm the people [is] the best and most effectual way to enslave them." The Second Amendment was penned to protect the people from an oppressive and tyrannical government. Only a few short words from "We hold these truths to be self evident." the Declaration of Independence continues, "That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

Our founding fathers were not only convinced of the people's right to overthrow their government when it acts outside their best interests, they believed it was their duty and obligation. This is exactly what they did in response to their British government and gave us the second amendment to ensure future generations could do the same if ever the need arose. At its core, the Second Amendment has always been to protect the people from its government.

James K Fisher
Senior
Nursing

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Dec 5 2008. Filed under Letters to the Editor, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry