In his Aug. 8 letter, David Martson lists the general rights defined in the Bill of Rights. His words for the second amendment “Right to own firearms” and his following paragraph implies that anyone has the right to own any number of any kind of firearm for any purpose.
The Second Amendment ensures that citizens can be members of well-regulated militias and have the right to keep and bear arms. This was relevant and appropriate in the 18th century. I have no problem with hunters and target shooters owning appropriate guns for those purposes or with people having weapons for self-defense in their homes.
The basic problem in the U.S. is too many guns. We have 120 guns per 100 people. All other developed nations have less than 35. We have 10 times the rate of violent gun deaths than other developed nations. We have about the same rate of mental illness.
Most Americans favor reasonable gun laws, but the NRA essentially controls Congress because their fanatical followers will vote for whomever has high NRA ratings. This is enough to tip elections in their favor in many districts, so most politicians dare not vote against the NRA agenda.
I would gladly give up my “right” to own an AR-15 or AK-47 with a high-capacity magazine in exchange for everyone being safe in their communities and not needing active-shooter drills in schools. I consider this more important than Bubba having the right to get his jollies mowing down squirrels with his assault rifle.
Jerry Fraser
Snohomish
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