Hand grenades are arms to be carried; so are bayonets, poison gas canisters, shivs, flamethrowers, etc. Must we put up with those on our streets or in our homes? Our Constitution (if we want to read it that way) lets us carry those things around and, if we are scared and angry, use them.

Our Constitution was written for a newborn nation, with no well-ordered militias. Now, we have sheriffs, town police, state police, the National Guard, Army, Navy, Air Force – well-ordered militias small and great. Do we need new, more ingenious weapons to defend ourselves from each other? Will we claim our national Constitution encourages those?

Richard Sewell
Portland