Quote:
Originally Posted by vienna
No, it just that it would be nice to see the "well regulated" part of the 2nd enforced as much as the rest of the Amendment; it's obviously there for a reason; the Founders felt the importance and the the need to include the phrase; it's obviously there for a reason they foresaw...
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The "well regulated" part refers to the militia itself. The militia is composed of the people who have the right to bear arms. It does not say that the people or the arms should be regulated. And anyway, the phrase "well regulated" in that sense and at that time meant "well trained". There are plenty of contemporary examples of it being used that way.
Having said that...even though I am an avid supporter of the second amendment and a gun owner (and carrier) myself, I think you'd have to be crazy to oppose laws which would keep guns out of the hands of mentally unstable or malicious people. But that's not as easy to accomplish as one might think. Unfortunately, psychopaths are usually pretty good at hiding their true nature. I also have a sneaking suspicion that the kind of people who commit these atrocities have little regard for any law in the first place.
So what can we do? Personally, I think there is more than one way to address this problem. However, guns are intricately linked to American culture and have been since this country was founded. Even if it
was possible to take away all of Americas guns (it isn't), I don't think that would ever happen. More
effective measures to prevent these sorts of tragedies? I hope that
does happen.