Guns changed since Second Amendment
Another horrific mass killing of children in schools — now in Texas but previously in Florida, Connecticut, Colorado and Florida. How can these events be ended?
Gun control is the only way. But opponents counter: we cannot lose our Second Amendment rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Here is what that amendment says:
“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.”
Back in the 1770s, when that was written, our forefathers could not imagine how this amendment could be misconstrued. Back then, the threat of attack — especially on the frontier — needed to be acknowledged.
Note the words “well regulated Militia” and consider what “arms” meant back then: pistols and old-fashioned rifles. Self-protection and hunting were reasons to bear arms then, and I would argue the same now.
However, people do not need assault weapons of any kind to satisfy this amendment. And if people now are denied ownership of such types of weapons capable of mass killings, it does not infringe on their right to bear arms … just those arms.
Some say “guns do not kill people, people do.” True, but people with assault weapons can kill more effectively. People shopping for food can be slaughtered by a person with an assault weapon, and large numbers of innocent children can be killed.
How can anyone argue that banning assault weapons and doing background checks to keep unstable people from buying them go against the Second Amendment today? I think it only supports the amendment — i.e., being “well regulated.”
We are the only nation in the world that has these mass shootings. Our leaders in Congress need to do something to protect citizens from this madness. As a young woman survivor of the Parkland School slaughter said on PBS recently: Our leaders should be ashamed of themselves for failing to take action to protect us.
Failure to do so puts the blood of those murdered on their hands.
Larry Harris
Morgantown
We’re all traumatized, but Uvalde most of all
In the last 14 months, 1 million Americans have died of COVID-19. We were traumatized, locked down, masked, afraid to go anywhere.
My father served in the United States Army during World War II, as did most of the men in my parents’ circle of friends. They never spoke to us children about the horror of war.
Some friends of mine were born in the late 1940s in refugee camps in Europe. They were traumatized by what they heard about their family’s experience; they may have grown up without grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins.
I will always remember friends lost to AIDS. It was hard to get people outside the LGBT community to admit there was a problem.
Imagine you grew up Black in the 1950s and you couldn’t go to the ice cream parlor, the local swimming pool, your city’s amusement park, most movie theaters and restaurants because you were Black. And then, when you are older, in 2022, a young person kills people in a supermarket because they are Black like you.
I read in the Sunday, May 29, Washington Post, in an article by John Woodrow Cox, about the survivors of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. They are graduating from high school now at 17 and 18. Their lives will never be peaceful. The same for the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
We’ve all lived through a lot, but no one has been more traumatized than those whose children and classmates are murdered at school. We must take action. We need to tighten regulations, make it hard to own a gun through higher age requirements, tougher permitting and a ban on military-style assault weapons. After the shootings at mosques in New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern banned ownership of assault weapons in her country. We could, if we had courage, do the same here.
Barry Lee Wendell
Morgantown
Congress gets gun money so nothing will change
On Memorial Day, we stopped and paid our respect to all who have given up their lives to keep us safe.
We also have to think about all the kids and teachers, and anyone else, who have lost their lives because people have to have weapons intended for war.
This weapon does not belong on the street or for sale, along with body armor. You have to be 21 to buy some things but can be 18 to get a weapon.
Until we take the money out of Congress, this will continue to happen. Next time it might be your kids, grandkids or you.
Gary Chivers
Morgantown
