On Sunday, Feb. 23rd 1997, a man came to the observation deck of the Empire State Building in New York City and shot a group of tourists with a semi automatic pistol. One person died and as I write this another of the victims may not survive. This shooter purchased the weapon in Florida. He couldn't have purchased the weapon legally in New York City because of New York's strict gun control laws. A similar situation occurred a few years ago with the gunman who shot up a Long Island Rail Road car full of rush hour commuters. In that case the weapon was purchased in California.
I believe in stricter gun control laws that cover the entire nation. It is to easy to circumvent one state's laws and get a weapon through a weaker system of checks.
I know there are those of you out there that will say "The Constitution gives us the right to bear arms!" OK, let us take a look at the Constitution. The full text of the 2nd Amendment reads... "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."
While, the second part of the above is often quoted, the first is usually ignored. I don't think it should. The authors of this amendment clearly intended the right to bear arms to be connected to keeping the security of the state. When one considers the recent history of the time this was written, I believe this was an effort to protect a state's rights against a possible oppressive federal government. One of the actions leading up to the Revolutionary War was the British soldiers confiscating weapons from the colonists. If one looks at the Constitution you'll find many things directly relating to actions suffered by the colonists by the British.
Another major consideration here is what is meant by arms. The type of weapon used in the late 1700's is nothing like guns of today. Just imagine the LIRR gunman using a pistol from the era that the Constitution was written. He could have gotten one shot off. Way before he could have gotten another shot off, he would have been easily stopped by the passengers on the train. As it was, the passengers stopped him after he got off an entire clip. The weapons of today are leagues more deadly.
Can we really afford to guide the safety of our country by words written in a different age for a different purpose? Lest we not forget the first line in the Constitution... " We the People of the United States of America, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty and Prosperity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
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This page updated 6/29/1999