A Well Regulated Militia

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

Amendment II to the Constitution of the United States

Back in the mid-eighties, I taught a Head Start class in what was the biggest high school in the United States. Clifton Park High School in Baltimore City was in a poor neighborhood and like many high schools in Baltimore had a reputation for violence. Since the school never attracted enough students to approach capacity the city put part of its Pre K program and Morgan State University's Head Start program in the lower floors in the back of the school. 

The whole pre school section of the Clifton Park was off limits to the high school students as was the back of the school where our students were dropped and picked up. Within weeks of the semester two murders of high school students by classmates occurred. Both deaths were caused by handguns- a 357 Magnum (Dirty Harry's massive pistol) and a 38 cal.  And both occurred right outside the door our children used just minutes before their release. 

Shooting deaths in and around Baltimore public schools were not uncommon and no action was taken to my knowledge to remedy the high school students violating our area. The police had a regular presence in the front of the massive building where the older students were supposed to enter and exit but I felt that the troublemakers were almost forced to our back side for their gang, drug and violent activities. 

I was shocked after the second shooting to find administrators explaining that we did not need a police presence outside our doors at the end of the school day because the high schoolers were not supposed to be there. 

I raised hell threatening to go to editors I had worked with as a freelance journalist and alienated the few allies I had in the program. In the anxious days following the second shooting I contemplated bringing a handgun with me to school to protect the children in my charge. Finally, we got our patrol car and I could go back to worrying about the educational and social needs of the kids. 

I relate this story to you in light of the recent massacre in New Town, Connecticut. I listen to the experts and politicians speculate on how we might better protect our children and I don't hear any answers. And I don't have any answers though it is a topic I have mulled in my heart and mind for decades. 

The Supreme Court has recently interpreted the Second Amendment to our Constitution as granting a right to individuals to own and bear arms. I'm not sure how they reasoned it so and personally do not care. The amendment is a grammatical disaster composed of four clauses linked by commas. The term "the people" is a collective term seen in the Preamble as "We the people of the United States." When the Constitution refers to the rights of individuals it usually uses the term "citizens."

How a right not to be infringed can be extracted from a sentence that begins with "A well regulated Militia" followed by a subordinate clause "being necessary to the security of a free State" I can't imagine. I am not a Constitutional scholar nor can I read the minds of the long dead framers of our founding document though Justice Scalia and Thomas claim to. 

That said, I do believe that Americans with full citizenship rights should be able to own a hand gun or simple hunting rifle. When our founding fathers were alive it took around a minute to load a single shot into a rifle or pistol. Nothing short of an artillery piece of their time could have produced anything near the slaughter we are seeing increasing in our society.

I am not against gun ownership but against semi and fully automatic weapons, large magazines and any other weapon that was developed for battlefield conditions being in hands of private citizens. Though background checks probably are helpful the shooter at New Town shot and stole the weapons of his first victim, his mother. Her sanity did not keep the weapons out of the hands of her disturbed son.

If you feel that you can not protect your home without a machine gun you probably should move. If you have fought for this country I regret that you do not have a right to a weapon similar to the one you used in that service anymore than you have a right to a tank or fighter plane. 

These are my thoughts and feelings and the only expertise I can claim is that I know what it is to worry about having children in my charge shot down. It is not something that happened somewhere else to someone else. It was my kids. In my backyard. 

As always, I invite your comments to my blog. 

Don Arrup

Satire1