JAMES W. KING: Law-abiding firearms owners not to blame for American violence

Law-abiding American firearms owners have about 300 million guns and several billion rounds of ammunition. We are not to blame for American violence. Blame excess and illegal immigration, multiculturalism, political correctness, bans on God and Jesus, excessive TV violence and excessive welfare, all provided by Democrats. The consequences were predictable and now Democrats are demanding restrictions or elimination of the 2nd Amendment right to possess and carry firearms.

The militia referred to in the Second Amendment is the American public. Numerous statements made by America’s founding fathers are clear. They believed the public should be armed to prevent foreign invasion or government tyranny as a last resort. They would have referred to a group such as the National Guard as a “select militia.”

Stating a militia should be well regulated is not a requirement that removes the right to exist from a militia if it ceases to be well regulated, as is the current status. Misinformed individuals are of the opinion the National Guard has replaced the militia. The National Guard cannot be the militia because they are under the direct control of the president and Congress. If the National Guard were all deployed overseas, much of the security necessary to protect the American homeland would rest upon the shoulders of police officers and the 70 million American firearms owners in the citizens’ militia, 5 million of whom are National Rifle Association members. If you are 16 or older, you are part of the militia based upon the perspective of America’s founding fathers, although it originally applied only to males.

Some argue that since only muzzleloading single-shot firearms were available when the Bill of Rights became part of the U.S. Constitution, the 2nd Amendment does not protect modern semi-automatic firearms. This flawed line of thinking would mean the 1st Amendment right of freedom of speech and the press does not protect telephones, TV, radio, internet, fax machines, typewriters, computers or modern high-speed printing presses, since they had not been invented in 1791.

Guns are not the problem. The problems are hearts without God, homes without discipline, schools without prayer, and courts without justice.

JAMES W. KING

Albany

EDITOR’S NOTE: James W. King operates King Antique Arms and is commander of the Albany chapter of Sons of Confederate Veterans.