Self-defense and the Second Amendment

Letter writer Douglas Noble believes that in the United States “firearms ownership is enshrined as a civil right.” (”Gun rights are facing challenge in Legislature” Feb. 10, 2018) There is simply no evidence to back up that emotional statement since nowhere in the brief 27 words of the Second Amendment does it state that handguns, assault rifles (or any other type of guns, for that matter) should be used for self-defense.

In his excellent and well-researched book called The Second Amendment: A Biography,” Michael Waldman informs the reader that “there is not a single word about an individual right to a gun for self-defense in the notes from the Constitutional Convention” of 1787, while the Founding Fathers stated numerous times during that convention that guns should be used in conjunction with militias.

Waldman also makes mention of Chief Justice Warren Burger, a conservative who was appointed by Richard Nixon, who wrote that the Second Amendment “has been the subject of one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word ‘fraud,’ on the American public by special interests groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime.”

Indeed. Americans would do well to heed the words of a bumper sticker which correctly advises us to:

“Bury guns, not children.”

This story was originally published February 22, 2018 at 3:09 PM with the headline "Self-defense and the Second Amendment."