Amendment II
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.
The year is 2013. As citizens of the United States of America we have several kinds of regulated armies that swear to protect and defend us and our rights as citizens. The need for citizen militia now is about the same as the need for a horse drawn fire-wagon completely obsolete. If we are a civilized nation then we have no need to own or use military weapons. The majority of citizens of the United States of America get their food from grocery stores. We do not hunt for meat unless it is in the refrigerated aisles of stores. There remain purists who prefer to hunt and kill their own meat guaranteeing its freshness and knowing its place of origination. They use shotguns. The likelihood of those hunters to use military weapons to kill their prey is small since the point of hunting animals for food is to eat them. Meat that is obliterated by bullets is practically uneatable. Military weapons are to kill humans as many and as quickly as possible. There is no need for citizens to own these weapons of death and destruction in a civilized country.
The hypothesis that more guns equal more deaths is highlighted in my birth city of New Orleans, Louisiana. According to an article attributed to Gwen Filosa, on the Times Picayune online news site NOLA.com, “Gunfire Death Rate in Louisiana is the Highest in the Nation, Researchers Find” published on June 2, 2010, stated that “Louisiana, where an estimated 46 percent of households own a firearm, has a gun death rate of 19.87 per 100,000, the Violence Policy Center determined by reviewing newly released 2006 data, the most recent available from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
Rounding out the top five in overall gun deaths were Mississippi, Alaska, Alabama and Nevada. The lowest per-capita gun death rates were in Hawaii, with 3 per 100,000, and a household gun ownership rate of about 10 percent.
The national average of gun deaths is about 10 per 100,000, roughly half the rate of Louisiana.
Hawaii was followed by Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York, which had a 5 per 100,000 gun death rate and 18 percent household gun ownership.
"The equation is simple," said Kristen Rand, the nonprofit's legislative director. "More guns lead to more gun death, but limiting exposure to guns saves lives."
Unless you hunt for food the event of a domestic argument being settled with slamming doors and curse words could well end in cocked triggers and everybody and the dog being shot to death within mere minutes because the gun is available. If you do not hunt for food why do you need a gun? Are thinking for protection a gun might be useful? No. That’s why we pay taxes for police. They are trained in weapons handling, the law and how to quiet yet not kill rising domestic incidents. Since we are the government and the democratic experiment that is America has lasted more than 200 years then the chances of a country or a group of insurrectionists taking over are between very slim and zero. The fact that we have the best military in the world and each state has National Guard units, state troopers, local sheriffs, and police forces what need is there for a militia?
Next issue: Gun Deaths and Domestic Violence
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