Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013 | 2 a.m.
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In response to Steve Orton’s letter, “Amendment isn’t about individuals,” I feel he missed the mark on what the Founding Fathers meant. We should be careful presupposing their intentions, as they left plenty of writings to deduce their intent.
Just state the facts. We were in a struggle for our independence against what we felt was a tyrannical empire trying to impose its will over us, and we wanted out of its sphere of influence.
We took up arms against it to prove the point.
In drafting our Bill of Rights, they made the Second Amendment the right to keep and bear arms second only to the right to free speech for a reason: They knew it was important to keep our new government from becoming the thing we were fighting against, and if our new nation turned on the people, the people could take up arms again.
This wasn’t about hunting for food and protecting ourselves against animals. This was and is to protect against oppression.
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