A History Lesson for Tom

 

Tom Shane doesn't believe in the citizen's right to keep and bear arms as protected in the second amendment. He says that a well-regulated militia is an armed force to defend the country from foreign aggression, and he has not found anywhere in the Constitution that says people have the right to bear arms to temper the ambitions of an aggressive government.

 

Let's see, Tom, do you remember your American history? Remember that when the Constitution was hashed out by our founding fathers, they were fresh off the battlefields of the Revolution. Were they fighting a "foreign government" on those fields? No, they were bearing arms to temper the ambitions of an aggressive government.

 

The Second Amendment states that a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state. That means we have the right to protect our freedoms from enemies both foreign and domestic. I don't see anywhere in the Constitution, Tom, where it separates the two.

"Militias, not individuals." The Dallas Morning News; January 17, 2013; p. 14A.