For those who say the Constitution is the be and end all, lets look at what the 2nd amendment meant when it was written. It doesn’t name guns specifically, but the implication is there. What it doesn’t say is anything about 1. how many, and 2. what kind. Arms now includes the range from a rock to a nuclear weapon. Where we draw the line is the question. And the debate is more cogent now that a single (white male) can kill more people in 5 minutes than any individual Revolutionary War soldier did in the entire conflict. The second amendment has provided the rationale for placing more and more lethal weapons into the hands of the public, including sport shooters, hunters and mass shooters.

I am not calling for people’s arms to be confiscated, but instead for a ban on assault weapons.

The part of the arms spectrum which includes assault weapons (please don’t ask me for a definition, my 5 year old grandson can tell which one is and which one isn’t, and so can you) is very small. A very small movement of our line towards the “rock” end will make them illegal. A small price to pay if you are a relative or friend of one of those picked randomly for slaughter by someone trying to make a point.