2nd Amendment

Eli Elliott (letter, Sept. 2) repeats the well-worn party line long established by The Times that the 2nd Amendment confers a “collective” right to defense. I guess Elliott and The Times missed the numerous Supreme Court decisions that hold that “the people” referred to in the 2nd Amendment are the same “people” referred to in the 1st, 5th and 10th amendments. Or perhaps they feel we only have a collective right to free speech and not an individual one.

In the early history of this country, militia members (that’s most male citizens, by the way) were required to answer their country’s call with weapons provided by themselves, of a type generally used by the standing army. Today that means fully automatic assault weapons (by the way, rapid-firing weapons were available in the 18th century and were familiar to our founding fathers).

JEFF MORGAN

Mission Viejo