by Kenneth Roberts
I have a few questions for those who, including some members of the Supreme Court, honestly believe that the Second Amendment was written (10 years after the end of the Revolutionary War) to give the people the right to own and carry guns in our neighborhoods, at public events, and in public places.
1. Why, if the writers wanted to mean “own,†do they use the word “keep†in the amendment?
2. and why the word arms if they meant guns—are grenades and flamethrowers OK too?
3. and why the word bear if they meant carry?
4. and why the words bear arms which when together followed by against means wage war on.
5. and since when did the people need a special amendment to give them a right to bear arms and risk their lives in battle?
6. and why did they put the word infringe at the very end which means to break or ignore the terms or obligations of (an oath agreement law or the like) to disregard, violate, unless they expected some future organization or court to ignore or disregard the first 13 words of the amendment which includes the militia?
7. and the big question why was the Second Amendment written if to give the people the right to own guns when they have always had that unwritten right from colonial days to the present because there has never been a law written that would deny the people of that right?
The Second Amendment, I believe, was not written to give a right to people or the militia, it was to give the people who volunteered to join the militia, the right to keep, at home, the guns that, in the future, would be issued to them (G.I., or government issue) and no longer have to depend on volunteers who already owned guns, to maintain a level of manpower needed to protect the rights won by the recent revolution. That was the first and only time that the government issued guns that could be kept, at home, between actions by members of our armed forces.
I want the Second Amendment repealed, as being worthless, since the militias no longer exist. We have the National Guard, in every state, well-funded and still made up of volunteers. Let’s get a handle on the proliferation of guns in our society, starting by repealing the Second Amendment.
—Kenneth Roberts, Rhode Island, is a 92-year-old World War II US Navy veteran.