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Posted
Nov. 8, 2002
| Gun
Rights Apply to Everyone |
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To the editor:
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| I'm writing in response to Roger Lowen's anti-gun letter
in the Nov 1 issue of The Reston Observer. A common claim
of the anti-gun lobby is that the founding fathers never meant
that "individuals" should be armed; they only intended for
the Second Amendment to apply to a "militia," such as the
National Guard. |
| These self-proclaimed interpreters of the Constitution also
ignore the Second Amendment's specific reference to "the right
of the people." The fact that the "rights of the people" appears
in the Fourth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments as well, and that
the courts have ruled repeatedly that these rights belong
to individuals, matters little to them. |
| I would encourage Mr. Lowen to look-up the word "militia"
in any dictionary. |
| The American Heritage Dictionary (second college edition)
defines it as, "a citizen army as distinct from a body of
professional soldiers. The whole body of physically fit male
civilians eligible by law for military service." Whereas National
Guard is defined as "military reserve units." |
| The Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear
arms; there is no comparable constitutional right to keep
and drive cars. Therefore governments are not free to regulate
firearm ownership the same way they can for driving. Gun registration
as proposed by Mr. Lowen actually serves to take a "right"
and reduce it down to a "privilege." |
| Firearm ownership is a right, not a privilege. |
| Doug Bookwalter |
| Herndon |
Copyright © 2003 The Herndon Publishing
Company
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