The Right to Bear Arms

The NRA is asleep at the wheel. As I read that Jared Loughner, the gunman who allegedly killed 6 and wounded 14 others – including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords – in Tucson on January 8, has been ruled incompetent to stand trial, it struck me that every red-blooded American should be allowed to carry a gun. Anywhere. Anytime. The Second Amendment is clear: “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.” That means everyone. Convicted felons? Sure. Don’t let them vote, but carrying a gun is their Constitutional right. Terrorists? Yes, as long as they’re US citizens, like Timothy McVeigh. Why are there metal detectors at airports? If I want to carry a gun on a plane, that’s my right. Right, NRA? My right to protect myself 24/7 shall not be infringed. Following the massacre of 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007, some gun advocates suggested that if people had been allowed to carry guns on campus – in the open or concealed – the violence might have been averted or casualties reduced because students would have been able to kill the killer. More guns in the hands of more people in more places seems perfectly reasonable.