Understanding The Second Amendment

President Obama and the anti-gun zealots either don’t know, don’t understand or don’t care about the context in which the Second Amendment to the Constitution was adopted.

The American Colonies had recently fought a successful armed insurrection against an oppressive British government. This revolt was made possible by the fact that the civilian population of these colonies was armed. The founding fathers were not concerned about hunting when they framed the second amendment. They were concerned about citizens maintaining the means to resist any overreaching and/or oppressive government, should that become necessary.

Obama and those of his ilk now choose to stand on the coffins of murdered children and advocate that we respond to the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School by making it more difficult for law-abiding people to defend themselves or others. Make no mistake; their ultimate goal is to disarm the civilian population and, to that end, they scoff at suggestions that could provide meaningful protections to the most vulnerable among us, i.e. armed personnel at schools.

Any gun in the hands of a law-abiding civilian is merely a tool and, like any other tool, just because a few may misuse it does not mean it has in any way lost its legitimate purposes.

One can only wonder how many lives would have been saved by the presence of one decent person at Sandy Hook Elementary who possessed a firearm and the skill to use it. People who are intent on mass murder usually go where they know they will find the greatest number of defenseless people (“killing zones”).

Russell T. Cumbee
Franconia, NH