Bill of Rights: Article II

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The National Rifle Association owns the Second Amendment lock stock and barrel. It will take many more massacres before Congress has the guts to bring interpretation of this amendment into the twenty-first century. In my 1/17/13 post, “We should not be intimidated by the Second Amendment”, I referred to Walter Shapiro's article "Repeal The Second Amendment", which appeared in Salon after the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007. His words are as appropriate now as they were then.

“Looking at the Bill of Rights with more than two centuries’ hindsight, it is simply irrational that firearms have a protected position on par with freedom of speech and religion. Were Americans — liberal or conservative — writing a Constitution completely from scratch today, they probably would agree that something akin to “freedom to drive” was more far important than the “right to bear arms.” The rights of state militias (which many liberal legal theorists argue is the essence of the Second Amendment) are as much a throwback to an 18th century mind-set as restrictions on quartering soldiers in private homes during peacetime (the little-remembered Third Amendment).”

A majority of Americans favor legislation that provides more gun control. Too bad their elected representatives are ignoring their wishes.

ed note: More on the Second Amendment - Cherry Picking Constitutional Rights.