2nd Amendment Rights

Two letters published May 30 assert that the 2nd Amendment is a collective right and not an individual right. This is a curious approach and interpretation that, if applied to the rest of the Constitution, would mean that individuals do not have any rights, only state governments. The Supreme Court has asserted that “the people,” as used in the Constitution, describes individual rights. The 2nd Amendment assigns rights to the people, which means individual citizens.

You can’t have it both ways, assigning individual rights in all cases except the 2nd Amendment. Either “the people” means us as individuals or only the state. If it means that only the state has rights, heaven help us.

Karl Vogeley

Valencia