Letter: Misreading of 2nd Amendment is fatal mistake

Editor,

We’ve had more mass shootings in America in 2023 than there are days to this writing; 185 through the end of April, about 120 days (source, Wikipedia, “List of Mass Shootings in 2023). The Second Amendment, not crazies, is killing us. No greater fraud has ever been perpetrated on the American people by special interest groups, than the interpretation of the phrase, “a well-regulated militia.” Broken down in context, the Second Amendment: “A well-regulated militia (an organized army at a time when America had none), being necessary to the security of a free state (an organized government, federal or state), the right of the people to keep and bear arms (when acting as soldiers as part of a well-organized and regulated army), shall not be infringed.”

The Second Amendment allows soldiers to own and carry weapons as part of an organized military. It was not meant for me to be able to go to my local sporting goods store and stock up on automatic rifles. We need to challenge the amendment itself on the merits and then we need to get the guns.

Steven V. Horton

Langley