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As the Supreme Court prepares to consider the issue of the
Second Amendment (shudder) the Harvard Crimson says that
the Second Amendment
is an anachronism and should be repealed. I give them points for
honesty. At least, it seems, they recognize that, as written, the Second
Amendment does, in fact, protect an individual right to keep and bear
arms, and they call for its repeal instead of supporting the tyrannical judges
who have tried to interpret it out of existence. Here's the
response I emailed to the editorial board:
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"But now, when the United States is
protected by the most powerful security forces on the globe, the Second
Amendment is neither relevant nor useful."
The framers of the constitution
feared a standing army more than any foreign invader. History had shown them
that the greatest threat to any people's freedom is not invasion, but domestic
tyranny, a fact that is just as true and relevant today. But I note that the
words "freedom" or "liberty" are not used anywhere in your article.
Interestingly, the word "free" appears only once ... in a quote from the Second
Amendment. The men who wrote that document were much more concerned about
preserving freedom than they were "the implementation of pressing public
policy," a sentiment obviously not shared by the Crimson staff. The framers of
the constitution had just found it necessary to overthrow their government, and
the Second Amendment was written to ensure that the citizens of the country they
were about to create would always maintain the means to do the same to this new
government should it ever prove necessary. This is what the Second Amendment is
all about, and it is as "necessary" today as it was in 1776, especially
with "the most powerful security forces on the globe" at our government's
disposal.
I won't bother to pen a lengthy answer
to your statements about "crime." Your flawed
arguments and twisted statistics have already been
answered elsewhere much more effectively than I could. Suffice it to say that,
although the Second Amendment is not about "crime," a well exercised right to
keep and bear arms has repeatedly proven to be the most effective
deterrent to crime. Crime, like tyranny, flourishes where the prospective
victims are unarmed and defenseless.
Regards,
Raymond K. Paden
rkpaden.com |
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