Contrary to Michael Lee’s contention, the second clause of the Second Amendment is quite clearly conditioned by the first (“Second Amendment for individual liberties,” Star- Advertiser, Letters, Nov. 15).
In other words, the individual right to bear arms is linked to a free State’s security concerns, both foreign and domestic, and thereby subject to its regulation.
This made sense in the late 18th century, given the nation’s justifiable fear of large standing armies (see Alexander Hamilton’s and James Madison’s explication of this point in the Federalist Papers). But that rationale in the 21st century makes no sense, given that each state has a national guard and the United States has the strongest military in the world.
Today the Second Amendment is a dangerous anachronism that this “conservative” Supreme Court has misinterpreted to the detriment of us all. Now we live in a country in which there are more guns than people and where any aggrieved soul can buy an AR-15 with less difficulty than it takes to get a driver’s license.
The solution is obvious yet unlikely in today’s political climate — repeal the Second Amendment. It’s really the only way off this merry-go-round of gun violence and mayhem.
Michael Clark
Ala Moana
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