Not what Founders had in mind

Not what Founders had in mind

I write this letter in despair and anger. I feel horrified and terrified. The events in Newtown, Conn., have sickened us all. Is this now the new normal? Where is anyone safe? Not in a shopping mall, not in a place of worship, not at a political event, and certainly not in a school.

As I watched the gut wrenching news coverage of this senseless incident I prayed to God that now maybe something will be done by the government to take that first step toward reinstituting the ban on assault weapons, the only purpose of which is to hunt people. These weapons were meant for the military and safety forces, not the average citizen, whether his/her intentions were innocent or evil. I frankly don’t care what the NRA has to say about it. When is this country going to get it — the NRA does not run this country, the president and the Congress do. We keep hearing “Now is not the time.” Seriously?

Now before some readers go all Second Amendment on me, I assure you, I am in favor of gun ownership as our forefathers had intended. Our wise forefathers insisted on the right to bear arms for “traditional lawful purposes” and for “orderly liberty.” I take no issue with a sane, lawful adult purchasing guns for protection, collection or hunting. But gun activists now seem to buy them to somehow find their manhood. We have all seen gun devotees on news footage with a gun strapped to their thigh to make a point. Their “point” aside, they look like overgrown children playing cops and robbers. Does anyone really think our forefathers had assault weapons in mind when they enacted the Second Amendment in 1791? We were dealing with muskets then, people. How many young, innocent children could young Mr. Lanza have killed if he had to stop to keep reloading his musket?

It is ironic that Adam Lanza’s mother, who purchased the guns used for this carnage and had “survival issues,” was undone by her own son.

I keep flashing back to that iconic vision of Charlton Heston holding up a rifle and pronouncing “They will have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands.” We are left with having to pry a symbolic rose out of the cold, dead hands of a six year-old.

Jean Kimmel, Poland