The writers of the Second Amendment lived in a world where guns were primarily a grocery-getting device, as in “let’s have squirrel for dinner.” Secondarily, they were intended to be used in a “well-regulated militia,” a peace-keeping force of volunteer citizens in a country where there was no army and no police force.
The founders of our country would be aghast to see how guns are now used daily for resolving petty personal disputes, often homicidally. Guns as they are used today have nothing to do with “the security of a free State.”
Note that the right to keep and bear arms was intended for the protection of the state, the community, the whole of society, not individuals. Our founders were men of reason and intellect who could scarcely have imagined the barbarity with which guns are now disseminated and utilized.
Most of us can still read the U.S. Constitution. Can we also comprehend its meaning in historical context?
Ilona Jappinen, Logan