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Letter: Membership in militia is not required for guns

Tuesday, July 27, 2004 | 8:56 a.m.

In response to Terry E. Peele, who responded to my letter of July 6, I would like to answer his "one question for me." I had quoted from the Second Amendment, omitting the words, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state,". He asked: "How did he get past (those) words?"

I did not disregard any part of the Second Amendment, as he suggested. Our Founding Fathers made sure that a militia could not be eliminated by Congress. They also made sure that people could "keep and bear arms." Nowhere in the Second Amendment (or any other place in the Constitution) does it state that a person must be a member of a militia in order to "keep and bear arms."

Having taught United States history for more than 30 years, and having made the U.S. Constitution an integral part of my curriculum every year, I am thoroughly familiar with the document.

GLEN J. GILLETTE

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