BANG

"There are several versions of the text of the Second Amendment, each with slight capitalization and punctuation differences, found in the official documents surrounding the adoption of the Bill of Rights.^[4] One such version was passed by the Congress, which reads:^[5]

“

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.

”

Another version is found in the copies distributed to the states, and then ratified by them, which had this capitalization and punctuation:^[6]

“	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." Wikipedia

Now, the last week has had a Second Amendment rally and the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. One might think the two events were umbilically connected. We find it sad that on the issue of gun control no-one will move to the middle ground.

There is nothing wrong with firearms. My father had a rifle and taught us to shoot it, "hunting" crows at the town dump. I wish I'd learned to hunt---I love venison, elk, and moose meat. However I don't think these meats would be quite so tasty if one had to pick shell fragments from an automatic weapon out of the carcasses before butchering........

Automatic weapons were invented for one purpose---warfare. Machine guns and automatic repeating weapons are used by the military----soldiers tasked to defend their country. They have no business in the hands of children, drug dealers, or ordinary citizens. Just think about the Mexican drug wars currently being contested---the US is the marketplace, ergo the profit center for the cartels. It also serves as the source for their weaponry because of our lack of control over the purchase of automatic weapons. What a grisly balance of trade---import the drugs, export the guns!!! The case could be made that Mexico's travails are the fault of the US!!!!

And no matter how I read the two versions of the Second Amendment I cannot see any justification in them for the sale to the public of automatic weapons. I know the NRA interpretation is that any restriction on gun ownership is an infringement and the liberal freaks say the Amendment applies only to militia being armed. Somewhere in the middle is the answer---automatic weapons for the militia (which at the time of the framing of the Constitution was the equivalent of the present day National Guard, not the "militia" groups so en vogue along the border and among the ultra-right secessionists) and guns that are suitable for hunting or sport-shooting for the masses. This won't end the black market in AK-47s and Kalashnikovs but it might lessen their availability a bit more than the lack of regulation presently in practice. And the NRA people and hunters can still have their "right to bear arms." As long as we stop short of arming the bears............or should we????