It’s time to begin a conversation. I’m going to call it:
Guns — A Continuing Discussion — (Append the part numbers here)
Let me preface with this:
I am not an anti-gun ownership guy. Neither am I an anti-automobile ownership guy. Or an anti-helicopter ownership guy.
But please, it is not unreasonable to anticipate a slew of worst-case scenarios if regulations governing owning and operating an automobile or a helicopter were suddenly nonexistent. We, the Village at large, have proscribed certain things by statute because the improper or casual or criminal use of certain things will be dangerous. Our Constitution doesn’t say American citizens have the right to possess every type of weapon known to humanity. To that point, (and for the Originalists out there), it could be construed that the constitutional framers intended that every American citizen had the right to keep and bear muskets, (black powder, not smokeless powder), air rifles, bows n’ arrows, spears and knives. (You could probably add catapults, ballistae, trebuchets and such, but those are a bit cumbersome, take up a lot of room in a closet, and I dare you to hang one over your fireplace.)
Anyway, those were the weapons the Founding Fathers were familiar with. And when they said every citizen had a right to keep and bear arms, THOSE were the damn weapons they had in mind. Not a machine gun. Not a flamethrower. Not a bazooka. Not a tank. Not a cannon.
Get the idea?
The Constitution — and subsequent amendments — were written with certain thoughts percolating inside the authors’ heads. It’s important to keep that at the forefront during our discussion.
