Readers React: Back and forth and back again over firearms

A federal appeals court has struck down as unconstitutional parts of a gun-control law in the nation’s capital that imposed strict registration requirements on handguns and long guns.

Oct. 1, 2015 7 AM PT

To the editor: In its editorial, The Times trots out the hoary and long-discredited notion that the 2nd Amendment’s “reference to a ‘well-regulated militia’ limits the right to keep and bear arms to organized military units, such as the National Guard.” (“Gun control, again,” Editorial, Sept. 23)

Let’s apply common sense to the text itself.

If you want a state army, you form one. You don’t put it in a document called the Bill of Rights, let alone give it pride of (second) place.

Remember that whole Revolutionary War thing? The words of the body of the amendment — “the right of the people” — are the same ones used in the 1st and 4th Amendments, and are universally recognized to confer individual rights.

I can respectfully disagree with an anti-gun argument that the evolution of weapons over time dilutes the effectiveness or importance of the 2nd Amendment as a check on the military, but continuing to prop up the collective right theory betrays historical ignorance.

Jordan Chodorow, Los Angeles

To the editor: Gun control is a waste of time. Bad situations happen all of the time without the use of guns. By banning or regulating guns, the government will hamper nothing because law-abiding citizens are the only ones who follow the law in these instances.

Demonizing firearms when they are used legally by people is just creating a larger divide on the issue.

Brett Azevedo, Hawthorne

To the editor: Every despot, dictator and tyrannical government throughout history enacted control of weapons (guns, when invented) to remain in power. Our Founding Fathers knew this.

So be careful what you wish for when you continue to try to destroy the 2nd Amendment, one of our many guarantees of freedom.

The wording “a well- regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state,” was a statement of fact. The wording “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed” is in simple English and not all that complicated.

Bob Rosenberg, Woodland Hills

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