2ND AMENDMENT

I support the 2nd Amendment right of citizens to keep and bear arms that was recently confirmed in the Supreme Court's "DC v. Heller" ruling. This amendment is a valuable piece of heritage from our Founding Fathers that we should respect and protect.

Many people react to incidents of terrible gun crimes (like school shootings) by calling for more restrictions on firearms. Unfortunately, many people also overlook the fact that most gun crimes are committed by criminals (who ignore the law) with stolen or illegal firearms. Banning firearms outright- or even banning specific types of firearms or ammunition- will only force decent, law-abiding gun-owners to surrender their weapons, while criminals continue to steal firearms or acquire them from the black market. "If we outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns!"

Hate to use the cliché but "guns don't kill, people do!" Controlling the tools without trying to control the behavior or intention of people is a losing battle. There are many other "tools for killing" too. Can we ban them all? Yesterday there were assault weapons, today there are handguns, what about tomorrow? Baseball bats and kitchen knives?

Do you feel safer or less safe near soldiers or police officers? Safer, of course! But why? They have guns, many guns, and even assault weapons! Because we trust that the owners of those guns will not use them in the wrong way and do us harm. So the issue is not guns, but the minds of gun owners. We need to pay more attention to ensuring that our society is a peaceful one "in mind" first!