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May 22, 1998
To the editor, Gazette-Timesof Corvallis, Oregon
by Joe Fulton
Philomath, Oregon
I disagree with Dean Kennedy's interpretation of the Second Amendment (as would the U.S. Supreme Court and most constitutional experts).
The Second Amendment was written when state militias were our only line of defense. After militia's won a stunning victory over the British in the Revolutionary War most citizens thought there was no need for a regular army. The War of 1812 proved public opinion terribly wrong. State militia groups suffered humiliating and costly defeats due to an inherent lack of discipline and military skill.
Americans finally agreed to support a regular army. However, no one thought it necessary to clean up the Second Amendment which protects the right to bear arms in order to maintain "a well-regulated militia."
Crazed survivalists stockpiling automatic weapons do not constitute a well-regulated militia. Nor does a child walking into a school with a handgun. The deliberate distortion of the Second Amendment by the NRA and right-wing reactionaries is one of the major reasons America is besieged by gun violence.
The irony is that in promoting a distortion of the Second Amendment we
undermine the First. For how many Americans will exercise freedom of speech
when they are afraid they might offend some heavily-armed psycho pretending
to be a patriot? Or a misguided child pretending to be tough?
Joe Fulton