The Second Amendment
The Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights enshrines the Common Law right, the right recognized in the English Bill of Rights (1689) to keep and bear arms. In the English Bill of Rights, the pertinent passage reads as follows “That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defense suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law”.
The police cannot be everywhere all the time. Also, it is seldom that felons perpetrate their crimes in the presence of law enforcement professionals. That being the case, it is up to citizens to defend themselves and their loved ones until the police arrive. Often, the best defense is a firearm.
Aside from the Second Amendment, the mere fact that firearms are sometimes used by criminals should be no bar to their possession for defense, or for hunting, or for sport for that matter. In fact, making laws against gun ownership would only make it more likely that the people who would have firearms would-be criminals, since they do not respect the law, and firearms would be useful tools in their trade. Making firearms illegal would be setting wolves among sheep.
That was the situation in the worst individual incidence of mass murder in history. Earlier this century Norwegian authorities declared some places as ‘gun-free’ zones. On July 22, 2011, Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian who resented the way that Norwegians were being affected by the large-scale immigration happening in his country, took his rage out on 85 young people on a youth retreat island. He used a large-magazine rifle and a handgun. The island was one of those gun-free zones, so the young people and the adults on the island were unable to defend themselves.
Contrast that with the recent case in Texas where a man intending to shoot up the congregants in a church was killed by a parishioner who was carrying a gun. The solution for a bad man with a gun is a good man with a gun
It often happens that, when tragedy does strike, legislation is sought to prevent the tragic situation from recurring. However, it is unfortunate but true that one cannot effectively legally mandate morality, nor outlaw tragedy. Bad things will happen regardless of what we do.
However, simply because we cannot eliminate tragedy from our lives does not mean that we allow unlimited legal scope for it to happen. We have the right to keep and bear arms. But I don’t think anyone would like their quirky rich neighbor to have the legal right to purchase and possess nuclear weapons. So the right to keep and bear arms must have some rational limitations. What those limitations are should be the subject of serious discussion.
