The gun lobby wants to secure forever the right to bear arms as enshrined in the Second Amendment of the Constitution. I am all for it, as envisioned in 1791 by the authors of that amendment. Their “arms” consisted of spears, bows, clubs and muzzle-loading single-shot rifles. They never imagined the firepower of today’s weapons.

The Constitution’s authors were a wise and practical group who balanced rights and responsibilities. The gun rights of today are violently and tragically outside that balance and based on the macho male fantasies of Hollywood shoot-’em-ups, not on actual self-defense. We must at least eliminate high-capacity weapons. Gun lobbyists never mention the Second Amendment’s first words, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state …”

The tens of thousands of Americans killed with guns each year need a more regulated free state.

Phillip Davis
West Gardiner