The Importance Of The Second Amendment To The Constitution

Once upon a time there was a street in a particular town. Every car that drove on that street got a flat tire. So the city council decided that there should be tire repair shops set up every mile on that road. Several tire repair shops popped up on the side of the street. Each day hundreds of cars had flat tires and got them repaired. The frustrated drivers lived with it thinking that is the way it is; the city council thought that they had addressed the issue and the shop owners made plenty of money. No one bothered to investigate the root cause of the problem: Why are all cars driving on that particular street getting flat tires? Some people saw that the reason for the flat tires was the nails on the street but they didn’t speak up because

An amendment by its very definition is a revision or correction that was added to a document—in this case the Constitution—to meet the needs of a particular time and circumstances. Thus when the Second Amendment was ratified on December 17, 1791 a well regulated militia might have been necessary to the security of a free State. However, in 2014, the threat of Native Indians or Europeans grabbing land from us does not exist. We have a huge Department of Defense, every state has National Guards and every Municipality has a police department. In this context, what is the need for individual citizens to bear arms?

It is interesting to note that today’s ardent gun advocates purposely ignore the first part of this amendment (A well regulated militia being necessary for to the security of a free State) and only quote the second part (…the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed). They know that the militia idea is unappealing in a civilized society and that this amendment as it is written 200 years ago does not make sense

The 18th amendment which prohibited use of alcohol (1919) was repealed by the 21st amendment in 1933. During a brief period of 14 years of prohibition the law-makers changed their mind! May be they realized that a little alcohol was good for their spirits! (Pun intended) This shows that if we really want to change something, we can. It is unfortunate that the high level of national violence, the thirty thousand plus gun deaths a year, the grieving hearts of the Sandy Hook parents and the innocent faces of the Sandy Hook children, don’t tug the hearts of law-makers enough to change their minds on the Second Amendment.

We should never forget the fact that we are living beings inhabiting a moving planet, having a tentative existence imbued with impermanence. Such a life requires—in fact demands— revisions, reform, revival and sometimes repeal. As long as we are living, nothing should be written on stone. Stone-writing belongs in graveyards. Those who insist that documents that govern our lives are written on stones, and thus unchangeable, may be physically alive, but spiritually