Understanding The Constitution

People should be forced to understand and properly interpret the constitution or forfeit their voting rights – I don’t know, call me silly but as the constitution and its bill of rights are fundamental in our society, maybe we are best to figure out what our founding fathers were trying to say. Let’s take the second amendment for example. The second amendment is the “right to bear arms” one that conservatives just love. Unfortunately, they probably don’t understand it very well. Let’s see, it says this:

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

Most conservatives, usually only quote the second half so it sounds more like this: “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Matter of fact, the national headquarters of the NRA only has the last half of the amendment plastered on their building. The common deletion of the first half pretty much changes the whole meaning. The point with the amendment has mostly to do with the “well regulated militia” part really. I don’t know about you but I can’t see much use for one of those anymore. You see America was founded as a breakaway state from England and in order to keep the British from coming over here and kicking our asses, a well regulated militia was important. Considering we didn’t have a real army so to speak, normal people like you and me, were expected to grab our guns and take shots at the invading British. If you don’t believe that this was the original motive, look up “bear arms” and “militia” in your dictionary and you will see.

Now that America has enough military weapons to kill just about every person in the world, you and me keeping a rifle in the closet seems pretty silly. Matter of fact it sounds rather dangerous, and statistics tell us so. The founding fathers, bless their souls, had no way of envisioning people using guns to, a let’s see, go to school and kill their classmates or go in to my house and shoot my ass for my sneakers. They obviously envisioned a better-behaved society than we have now. 


There are other possible reasons for the need for people to have guns two-hundred plus years ago. Hunting comes to mind as well as the possible need to balance military strength of the government and the people. You have to imagine, when this whole thing was thought up, young America was just getting over getting smacked around by England and was weary of the new or future American government doing the same thing. 


Or maybe, considering the lack of law in the western part of America, guns would be necessary in protecting one’s self from danger, this amendment would be important as well. But let’s face it, there are police and super markets everywhere and if you think we could beat the Army in a test of force, you’re dreaming. So maybe in the late 1700s something like this might have seemed like a good idea but now it seems pretty stupid. Matter of fact, I don’t even think the amendment has to be changed, it just has to be properly interpreted and the laws changed to adhere to its proper meaning. It basically says that the federal government has no right to interfere with how state militias arm themselves. As far as the assault rifle under my neighbor’s bed, a law making it illegal has nothing to do with civil rights and is simply a matter of common sense. If you doubt that being able to buy and keep guns is a bad idea, I’ll just leave you with some statistics:

The gun-related deaths per 100,000 people in 1994 by country were as follows (guess which ones have gun controls):

1. U.S.A. 14.24 
2. Brazil 12.95 
3. Mexico 12.69 
4. Estonia 12.26 
5. Argentina 8.93 
6. Northern Ireland 6.63 
7. Finland 6.46 
8. Switzerland 5.31 
9. France 5.15 
10. Canada 4.31
11. Norway 3.82
12. Austria 3.70 
13. Portugal 3.20 
14. Israel 2.91 
15. Belgium 2.90 
16. Australia 2.65 
17. Slovenia 2.60
18. Italy 2.44
19. New Zealand 2.38 
20. Denmark 2.09
21. Sweden 1.92 
22. Kuwait 1.84
23. Greece 1.29
24. Germany 1.24
25. Hungary 1.11
26. Ireland 0.97
27. Spain 0.78
28. Netherlands 0.70
29. Scotland 0.54
30. England and Wales 0.41
31. Taiwan 0.37
32. Singapore 0.21
33. Mauritius 0.19
34. Hong Kong 0.14
35. South Korea 0.12
36. Japan 0.05

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With the recent assassination attempt against Rep. Gabrielle Gifford, isn't it about time America takes a good look at gun control? Six people were killed and 14 others wounded in the shooting. Among the dead, a federal judge, a congressional aide and a 9-year-old girl.